Crowd Control
by Pheonix2125
Summary: Robin gets drugged and the effects leave him struggling against an old ghost locked in the back of his mind. Slipping faster then he realizes, he'll need the help of the Titans and eventually his mentor to be the hero he once was.
1. Chapter 1

Woho! First chapter is up and this is going to be a long fun story! I've actually already got the whole first half of it written but you'll have to wait for those. Just for a little side note this will not be a Slade apprentice story even if for a bit it seems it may go in that direction. Slade just helps me set the stage for a bigger picture. :) Oh and I also make some stuff that happened to Tim happen to Richard but it's no big deal if you know nothing of either of them and it comes up later in the story. In any case hope u enjoy the story.

* * *

"Where is Robin?"

The Titans searched around themselves before gazing back at Starfire. Her voice had been barely audible over the roaring of the rain which was pouring down so heavily that they could not see much further than five feet in front of their face. They began crying out, hoping for a response, from their lost leader. No one answered. Raven's hand tightened around her communicator as she stiffly flipped it open.

"Robin, come in. It's Raven."

Beast Boy flexed his hands.

"Robin, where are you?"

After several minutes passed, Raven closed her communicator, her eyebrows forming a V, and looked up at the team.

"Where did each of you see him last?" Cyborg took a step forward.

"The last I saw, he was fighting off those Slade bots like the rest of us."

"Touché" Beast Boy spoke.

"Same as me" Starfire murmured.

"We need to split up and look for him. He must have been dragged away during the fight to a different area." Cyborg asserted which made Beast Boy relax and raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah or he followed an escaping one to go find Slade like an obsessive psychopath!" Raven's eyes chilled Beast Boy as she looked at him. He shrank back to warm his limbs before turning into a whimpering puppy.

"You're not helping the situation every moment wasted means Robin could be slipping into greater danger."

The soggy puppy shivered slightly before turning into a green coon hound and sniffing the area. Leaving the ground, the girls scanned the pines for any evidence of Robin. Red lasers cut through the fog to shine the way for Cyborg as he trudged through the underbrush. The dog sniffed urgently at the ground, sending a stream of water ups its nose, before shifted into a wolf, and leaping into the woods behind the Cyborg.

* * *

The water roared all around them. It reverberated off the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Yet, the boy did not stir. Water dripped softly off his face and landed in the small pool around him. It had no sound. His head faced the front of the cave away from the figure next to him.

Slade grinned beneath his mask, his breath falling onto the moist air like tiny droplets. Bending down, he unlatched a box he had placed in front of himself. He removed the boy's gloves on his left hand and began to wipe the forearm with iodine before throwing the cotton ball to the side and picking up a shot. He probed the boys arm, gently searching for the vein, before he stuck the needle into his skin and released the drug.

After he removed the needle he wiped it, being sure not to add too much pressure to the wound, with a cloth. Having completed the injections, Slade set the needles back inside the box and latched it on the front.

He slowly rose from his spot on the floor to gaze down at Robin. His adrenaline from the task at hand had worn down and as he assessed the boy's skills tonight, he was disappointed.

Robin hardly put up a fight.

He had easily crept, with the skills his robots did not possess, behind the boy and knocked him out. This meant the boy did not pay attention to his surroundings at all or just had a really bad day. He hoped it was the lather because then the boy had a lot more to learn then philosophy. It surprised him that he had left the nest so early that his mentor had let him go.

But, that suited him just fine.

Robin's true age, he did not know, but he was young. Young enough to rethink the way he handled the world. Slade was willing to give him that time. He would let his toxins do their magic until all he needed to do was whistle and his bird would come to him. Gathering his things he did one last task to make sure the titans suspected nothing and left.

* * *

Beast Boy's tail wagged excitedly as he bent his back legs down and tilted his head up to let out a loud howl.

"What'd you find BB?" Cyborg yelled over the rain.

The dog began following the scent of Robin through the trees. Cyborg trudged along after him while the other titans followed him. About one half of a mile later, they arrived at a wide mouth of a cave. Starfire lite up her hands and floated inside. Slade bots, their metal gears gleaming in the green light, littered the inside.

Cyborg shined his searchlight around the room and landed on a figure sitting against the right wall of the cave. He looked asleep, like he had taken a walk and sat down for a rest but his condition told them otherwise.

His upper arm had a large horizontal cut that had bleed profusely and had just recently begun to dry up, leaving a red sticky trail down his arm.

His clothes lay slightly tattered, lip bleeding and a welt had formed on the side of his face. Cyborg gently nudged his leader before assessing that he was not about to awaken and bent down to pick him up.

"Here" Raven said.

"I can move faster than you. We don't know how long he was bleeding."

"As long as you can handle him." Cyborg replied .

He carefully allowed Raven to take Robin from him so she could fly back to the tower.

"Do you think friend Robin will be okay?"

"I'm sure he'll be fine. It didn't look too serious."

"Man, If we would've helped he'd-a-creamed them no problem!" Beast Boy cried.

"I was so caught up I hadn't noticed he left the group."

"Nor I."

"Well, no use beating ourselves up over it. Let's go help Raven."

Starfire and Beast Boy nodded their heads and began walking towards the tower.

* * *

Short start but the chap length will increase, hope u stay reading^^


	2. Chapter 2

Alright, second chapter has been typed and edited :)

* * *

"Guess who gets breakfast in bed!"

"uhh, Beast Boy, turn off that light, my head"

"I made veggie bacon and an everything bagel just for you."

"I will not eat it if you leave the light on."

"Goodness, someone's grumpy."

He set the food down and dimmed the lights. Robin removed his arms from his head allowing Beast Boy to finally see his masked eyes.

"So did you bring cream cheese?"

Robin asked as he started to reach for his bagel. However, his stomach cramped from the blows he had received from Slade and he sank back into the pillows with a groan.

"Dude, take it easy, the food isn't going anywhere."

Beast Boy calmly picked up the bagel and spread a generous amount of the cream cheese on it. Robin glared at the ceiling until Beast Boy pushed the bagel with newly added cream cheese towards him. With some help, he slowly brought himself into a sitting position and began eating his food.

"You must be pretty sore. The good news is no broken bones. Raven said the worst was the cut on your right arm."

Robin glanced at his bandaged right arm. He was surprised he had a cut there because he never remembered receiving it. But, he reasoned it was probably the Slade bot that had knocked him out from behind.

`The titans sure took their time coming to help me.' He thought. `How long had I been knocked out on the floor before they moved to help me?' Part of him reasoned that there were a lot of robots and his accident happened in a matter of seconds but, that reasoning was dim in his mind. 'They weren't even watching to make sure I was alright. How many times had he yelled 'look out' at one of them?' It was so simple. You glanced at your friend now and then and yell two words when needed. He didn't think it seemed that hard. Now that his mind was on it, did they even figure out why Slade was attacking? No, of course not, this was a game to the titans. They were just playing the heroes.

"Thanks for the help."

"No problem."

"So did you decide to help around the time they were pounding me into the dirt or when they were going to cut my arm off?" Sneered Robin his brow fixed in a v.

"What?"

"I mean you obviously must have had to think pretty hard about helping me out. It's hard to miss your teammate getting smashed on the head. Or did I forget to mention in basic training that teams look out for each other."

Beast Boy got up off Robin's bed.

"Dude, calm down. You're the one who ran off we had to search for your butt in the cold rain!"

"Oh, so sorry to have caused you trouble next time I'll make sure I have eyes in the back of my head because you won't have my back."

"Look there was a lot going on. I'm sorry, alright?"

"Oh and I suppose yelling 'look out' was too much for you?"

The pair snapped their eyes to the door as it slide open.

"Hey man! How you hangin' ?"

"Oh Robin, you are okay."

Starfire giggled as she flew towards Robin with outstretched arms.

"Okay!"

He yelled abruptly while swinging rapidly out of bed which caused him to grunt in pain from his abdominal wound.

"You call having my team fail me being okay. I thought you guys had my back!"

Starfire stopped halfway towards Robin and dropped to the floor where her eyes remained. Cyborg stepped in front of the other titans.

"Look, Robin, I apologize that we didn't get there sooner but we were surrounded. And with the way the rain was pouring, we lost track of each other until it was over."

Robin's breathing calmed down. He stared hard at the group before reasoning in his mind that it was a legitimate claim. But, that was not the only reason he was mad.

"I understand. So putting that aside, what did you find out about the attack? What were Slade's intentions? Any leads?"

Cyborg pulled his fingers slightly and looked away. He knew they should have checked the area more but Robin was hurt. Raven pulled off her hood.

"Nothing, we had to locate you in the storm and then I had to bring you back quickly. We were unsure how serious that cut was."

"Oh, I see." Robin rubbed his chin slightly as if he was thinking.

"So it took all four of you to lug my carcass back up to the tower. That makes perfect sense."

Beast Boy growled in frustration. "Dude we were worried about you"

Robin just glared at him and began stomping his way to the door but Cyborg blocked his way. His temper had gone far enough and Cyborg was going to put an end to it. There was no reason for Robin to yell at them so harshly even if he was the leader.

"Get the fuck out of my way."

"Not until you calm down."

Cyborg stated back with a level voice filled with authority. Robin clenched his fists.

"I said get the fuck out of my way."

"And I said not till you calm down." He yelled back.

Robin felt his blood boil as he looked at the road block in front of him. He knew he couldn't shove his way past Cyborg's huge frame and because of that he wanted to punch him in the face. He wanted to punch Cyborg in the face. He wanted him to move. He wanted him to shut up. He wanted him to. He wanted him to… Robin shut his eyes as at the last thought that passed over his mind. He needed to calm down. He began to breathe out of his mouth and in through his nose while counting to fifty. The Titans watched him carefully each reacting differently to his outburst. Starfire looked guilty, Raven shocked, Beast Boy angry, and Cyborg firm.

Robin opened his eyes and looked into Cyborgs. Upon seeing Robin gaze at him Cyborg knew the teen had calmed and clapped his hand on Robin's shoulder.

"I bet BB tried to feed you a nasty vegetarian meal. Let's go get something substantial." Said Cyborg.

"Sounds great, do we have any bacon?"

The pair made their way out of the room leaving the startled group behind.

"Wohhhh, so robin blows up and five seconds later Cyborg and he run off to get breakfast together."

"Looks like they worked it out," said Raven passively.

"I am glad Robin was able to settle this issue. It was most unnerving." Spoke Starfire as she floated out of the room after Raven.

"Whatever," grumbled Beast Boy who was still upset over Robin's outburst.

Upstairs, Robin was flipping through the TV channels because Cyborg refused to let him in the kitchen because he needed to rest his injuries. Starfire floated over to Robin and Beast Boy snatched the remote from next to him which earned him a heated glare. Before he got the opportunity to change the channel, Robin jumped up and ripped the remote out of his hand.

"What do you think you're doing? I was watching that!"

"Ahhh, your injuries! I was just seeing what else is on. Why are you getting all crazy?"

"It doesn't matter what else is on because I'm not watching it."

"My gosh, Okay. Have the remote"

"I do you idiot."

"Um, bacon's ready." Interjected Cyborg.

Robin scoffed at Beast Boy and swept out of the room taking the remote with him leaving behind a very frustrated Beast Boy.

"What was that about?" Asked Cyborg.

Robin sat down and grabbed some bacon.

"He tried to change the channel even though I was watching it."

"Man was that all? With all that I thought he started up on you from earlier."

"Nope" Cyborg shrugged his shoulders.

He wondered if Robin was so moody because he got surrounded by the robots in the cave so easily. But it had looked like he made short work out of them. He shook his head slightly in thought and returned to devouring his bacon. Just then the tower flashed red and the siren screeched in their ears. Robin flung out of his chair ignoring the painful shock that ran through his abdominal.

"Titans Move!"

The team raced into action. They were headed to the park where a bomb had been reported. When they got there a sladebot was standing in the center of the park waiting for them. They drew close around it and when it sensed them it pulled out a monitor. Slade's head slowly began to appear on the screen.

"Hello, Robin."

"Slade, What are you up to!"

"Patience Robin, If you would cease making pointless noise, I will tell you."

Robin clenched his fist around his bow staff. He hated being patronized by him. It made him want to blow up the screen but they needed to know the threat.

"Good boy. Now listen closely. I have released twenty bots around your city that will explode at the time I program them to go off."

"Bastard! Where are they!"

"That's part of the game isn't it Robin. It's your job to find them and destroy them. They deactivate when you ripe off the head."

Robin rushed forward in a blind rage and destroyed the robot and monitor in one hit. Slade had been patronizing him, telling him what to do, like he was some idiot who couldn't handle leading a team. Controlling his temper be damned. He wanted Slade's head. He swung around to face his team members. His eyes filled with fire.

"Find them! Now!" He barked."Starfire go north, Cyborg east, Beast Boy west, Raven south. Don't just stand there move!"

The titans all scurried off to their appointed positions not wanting to stay in the presence of their enraged leader any longer. Robin jumped to the roofs to scout the center of Jump city. It wasn't long till he spotted the first bot. He descended upon it like it was a worm and knocked it into a nearby alley way. He targeted all his attacks on its head, till it started to malfunction, and ripped the head off. Seeing his work complete he ascended to the roofs again where he found himself face to face with two more.

He pulled out his birdarangs and hurled them at the throats of the Robots. Much to Robin's pleasure the weapon hit its target and all he had to do was walk up to the bots and finish the job. After Robin took out five more, his communicator started to go off.

"Robin here."

"I'm not finding anything over here."

"What! You're not looking hard enough! I've found and destroyed seven already. Keep looking."

"Alright, Cyborg out."

Robin growled as he shut his communicator. He could not believe Cyborg was being so stupid. The bots were not even trying to hide. They were just dumb machines. He looked over to the east and his blood boiled.

"Smoke. Smoke!"

He cursed under his breath over Cyborgs incompetence. He looked below in the streets and to his disgust he beheld five of the creature all in a big heap. He flung two birdarangs at the closest and somersaulted into on the bot's neck, knocking it off its head. Just as he finished laying them to waste, the ground shook. Robin looked up in horror and saw smoke rising nearby. He had missed two. Anger swam through his throat and he frantically began searching the city again until he found one.

Just disabling the thing would not satisfy him now. He flung himself at the bot and smashing his bow staff on the side of its head. The thing staggered but regained itself and began throwing punches at him. The robots attempts were sad. Robin almost laughed at it. He grabbed its arm and flung it into the wall. The thing recovered quickly but Robin was waiting for it. He stabbed the birdrang into the robot's neck and pulled it out. He was about to pull the head off when he became paralyzed in terror.

The robot didn't spark, it didn't malfunction but it certainly didn't work. Red liquid poured down the side of its neck and it started to make a strange gurgling sound. Perhaps on instinct, Robin rushed forward. He pulled off the mask on the figure and recoiled slightly from shock when he saw a real face, two brown eyes, a nose, a mouth, brown hair.

His mind seemed to melt in shock at the sight before him. He shakily applied pressure to the man's wound to stop him from bleeding to death but his limbs were turning stiff. He couldn't move. He felt a heaviness settle upon his chest.

Suddenly, he saw himself being pulled away from the man by a black mass but he hadn't moved. He could not tell what was going on. There was a girl. Was that Raven? He couldn't tell. His world was spinning like a top just seconds from falling.

'I almost killed someone I though was a robot.' he thought

Robin's lip twitched slightly upward. He thought the man was a robot. How ironic. How very ironic. He looked at the blood soaking his gloves and clothes and began to laugh.

It wasn't funny. It really wasn't.

But he laughed. He couldn't cry.

Leaders don't cry. So he laughed.

It was kind of funny.

* * *

It begins! 8D Just a reminder in case you didn't read the first note this will Not be a Slade story he is just a pawn for now. :)


	3. Chapter 3

Yah a new chap! \(^o^)/

* * *

When Raven found Robin after completing her search of the city she almost didn't register what was going on. However, one look at Robin's paralyzed face told her otherwise. She quickly floated over to the pair and told Robin to move out of the way.

He did not answer her request, so not wanting to waste time, she gently moved him back with her black magic and began healing the man before her. His throat was stabbed and she could tell she was almost too late.

She just finished patching up the veins and arteries when she heard choking from behind her. It startled her and then she recognized the sound as laughter, a sickening, choking, laughter.

"Robin!" Raven's head shot up.

"Robin, Robin. You are covered in blood? What has happened? Why are you laughing?"

Starfire's voice sounded worried and strained to Raven's ears so she turned to look at the pair. Robin was hunched over slightly with his hands at his mouth with Starfire hovering in front of him. Starfire yanked Robin's wrists away from his head and pulled off his gloves to see where the blood was coming from that stained them. But, his wrists weren't cut. It wasn't his blood.

"Raven, why does he laugh?"

Raven didn't answer and neither did Robin explain. They stood there and watched as Robin's fit slowly left him gasping for air. He had stopped laughing.

"Whoa! What happened here? What's with all the blood?" exclaimed Cyborg who just arrived with Beast Boy.

"There was an accident. I don't know the details."She spoke gesturing to the man in the pool of red.

"Dude! Is he dead!" Raven glared at Beast Boy.

"He almost died. I think he might have drugged Robin with something"

Robin tried to speak to defend the guy but he found all he could do was shake his head no as he stood breathing heavily. His head was pounding and it was hard for him to concentrate. Starfire floated in front of him but she was blurry to his eyes. Somewhere off in the distance he heard a lot of noise, something different from the everyday city. It sounded like a lot of people but not city people. Where were they? Were they going somewhere? Was it a special event?

"Robin!"

He jerked as if shocked by Starfire's loud voice in his ear and he stared at her cryptically.

"Starfire?"

"Robin, you are unwell. We are taking you back to the tower."

_The tower?_ He thought. _Why a tower? Shouldn't they go back to the cave?_

He blinked at her but then she was gone and the ground was moving and the colors where blurring together. He couldn't see. He couldn't see. His feet touched the floor but he still couldn't see. The colors were running about him. Something grabbed his arm and he ripped it back and growled. He then felt his arm rising against its will. He stared at his arm but where was it? He couldn't see it. The noise had increased. He listened closely to it and suddenly it dawned on him. It was a crowd and they were cheering. But, now his world was turning black.

Raven quickly caught Robin before he fell off the bed. He had all at once gone pale, perspired, and dropped.

"Anything, Cyborg?"

"Yeah, it looks like there's some kind of toxin in his blood. I'm separating them now and done. I'm going to take it to the lab to do a thorough test."

"I'll go inform the others."

Raven floated out of the room after Cyborg who was holding a blood sample and went into the living room where Beast Boy and Starfire were waiting for the diagnosis.

"He has a toxin in his bloodstream which probably explains his strange behavior."

"Can it be removed?" Starfire asked .

"Cyborg is working on that right now; it's just a matter of waiting."

Robin slowly opened his eyes and sat up, pushing aside the starch, white sheet covering him. He gently set his feet on the floor, made his way into his own room and flopped onto his own bed. He was still in titan tower which meant his team was able to save the man. If they had not saved him he'd be staring at bars. He let out a sigh of relief and rolled over on his side.

It had been so easy. He couldn't believe Slade could sink to those kinds of tricks but villains always seemed to surprise him, especially Slade. He looked at the door to his room.

_'I should probably face the titans'_ he thought and rolled into his pillow.

He wasn't in the mood to explain to them what had happened and he didn't want to think about it. Groaning, Robin got up and began heading for the living room. He paused at the door, hearing cyborg talking to the team before he opened the door and walked inside.

"Robin!" Starfire cried. "You should not be up. You are hurt and require the bed and rest."

He shook his head. "I'm not hurt Star. It was never my blood."

He looked at the floor.

"We know" spoke Raven. "We picked up a toxin in your blood. From what Cyborg researched it increased your aggressive behavior."

"That would explain why I got so angry at you guys huh." Robin mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck "Sorry, BB."

"Dude think nothing of it." Beast Boy extended his hand and Robin shook hands.

"That's only one of the problems" spoke Cyborg.

"I scanned you blood system while you slept to ensure all the toxins neutralized and found all these."

He pressed several buttons on the main computer which pulled up a list of toxins. Robin's face danced on the edge of terror and loathing and he turned away from the screen.

"Dude! How did he find the time to blast you with all of those?"

"He didn't. You shouldn't worry about those. They are harmless anyway."

He gazed towards the door with his arms slightly hugged around himself as if to ward off something long forgotten.

"Um, they are toxins in your blood I think we should be worried."

Robin looked up to face them.

"No, they've been there for a long time."

He closed the distance between himself and the monitor and put his hand on the screen.

"Before I knew you. Their presence does not affect me nor can they be removed. We have tried already. It's the best we could do."

"Who is this we. I do not remember us helping Robin remove toxins from Robin."

He shook his head again and dropped his hand.

"Not you my old mentor."

Beast Boy yelped and fell over.

"Whoa you mean the one and only!"

"Yeah sure, look when I first started I had plenty of mistakes. That is just one of the consequences of being a hero in a place like that. The guys we had to track down aren't anything like the ones you've seen here."

"So I guess Slade and Trigon don't count, huh."

Robin laughed as Raven counted them on her finger and flopped onto the coach. He turned the screen with the toxins off and switch on the TV.

"Hey I didn't say they were less threatening just more ruthless and well crazy. Villains here almost have a code but back there they'd shot a baby as target practice."

"As interesting as this topic sounds…" trailed off Raven.

"We should totally watch a movie."

In a matter of seconds the titans had woven their way onto the coach nearly squashing the unexpected Robin.

"Alright everybody, I just rented this super cool movie about these evil clowns that start taking over the circus."

"I think I'll…"

"It's a horror." Beast Boy slyly mentioned as Raven was about to leave.

"Sounds good."

"Awesome"

"Yes it sounds most intriguing. Only how can this clown be evil? Do they not spread laughs and smiles."

"You'll see Star. Well, Robin, you in?"

He spoke holding the DVD cover in front of Robin's face.

"Ah, I don't know guys the whole clown thing."

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at each other in understanding and started laughing.

"Ah man, you're afraid of clowns!"

Robin blushed and shoved his hands in his lap.

"No! I am not!"

"Then why won't you watch it? Is a creepy circus too much for you?"

Beast Boy teased wiggling his eyebrows. Robin snatched the DVD and stormed over to insert it into the player before retreating back to his spot in the middle of the coach. He put his feet up so that they weren't touching the floor. The boys snickered but soon became quiet when the movie started playing. In a matter of minutes the dramatic G minor classical music began disturbing the less of hearts and causing an eye role from the more logical audience.

Raven moved closer to the screen in interest and Robin sat fiddling with his hands. He didn't like seeing the circus. He didn't even like hearing about it. His wounds had never closed.

He sighed.

The movie had been okay so far, just some teenagers going to the circus instead of school. The only thing scary was the music and dramatic screenshots. Before the show started the boys meet a girl ribbon dancer that they all seemed to like. Robin rolled his eyes knowing the performers were never walking around in the crowd before the show. The whole portrayal of the circus was very embellished.

"That girl lives in the circus!" Cyborg spoke.

"That just sounds bad."

"No way!" yelled Beast Boy.

"They get to be weird and crazy whenever they want and it's normal! Not to mention they get to breath fire and throw knives at people."

Robin sat up.

"Since when are they weird and crazy? They're just performers."

"Yeah, intense performers who fight lions."

Beast Boy waved this hand above his head excitingly.

"Nah man, I always thought they're kinda creepy." Spoke Cyborg.

"Too happy and colorful," added Raven.

"I think they look glorious."

Robin smiled softly at Starfire

"Yeah I love them too."

Starfire smiled back at Robin and they both turned back to the movie. As the movie progressed the clowns appeared more and more, in the shadows, watching the kids, swiping their victims one by one. Robin shuddered slightly every time he saw them, the white face, the red smile, the colored hair.

He could almost picture it; the white wall stained with blood and urine, the straps, the cold metal. His stomach retracted slightly and he covered his mouth as the nausea subsided. He brought his hand down from his face and cursed himself for being so unsettled.

The kids had found out about the clowns and where trying to get out of the tent but the girl went back to get her mother. The screen changed and her mother was seen practicing on the ribbons. She was at the top when suddenly she felt herself being to fall. His heart constricted. It showed the clowns laughing above her as she slowly fell to the ground.

He felt as if he was falling with her and then her neck snapped and there was blood. He stared in horror as the camera slowly eased away from her face before switching the screens.

"Man that would suck," inserted Cyborg.

"It does," he whispered.

"Huh, you say something Rob?"

He shook his head fervently.

Cyborg snickered, elbowed Beast Boy, and whispered about how they could use Robin's new found fear of clowns. Robin grabbed his wrist and shoved it in his lap because his hand had started to shake. His eyes were stinging and his breath frozen.

The children had found the practice tent and were headed towards the girl's mother. When they finally got to her, when they saw the dead lady Robin screamed and so did Starfire. The mother's face had a big red smile drawn on her face.

Beast Boy and Cyborg roared with laughter as their fearless leader jumped to his feet in trepidation. He stood there, blinded by the tears that couldn't escape through his mask, brought a shaking hand to his mouth, and escaped to the restroom. Once inside, He locked the door clumsily and ripped open the cabinet. Items were flung about until his hand rested on a particular bottle.

He faltered slightly, removed the lid and drowned the cotton ball in his hand with the liquid. He whipped the soaked cotton over his mask, causing the fibers to release its hold so he could pry it off. Solution from the cotton ball and his own tears splashed the mirror as he ripped off his mask from his face allowing his tears to create rivers beneath his eyes.

He tried to calm his frenzy by taking deep breaths and then gazed into his eyes, his deep blue eyes. They stared back at him, not some mask, but the eyes of Richard Grayson. Richard choked down a sob.

He had seen his mother die again in his head but he would have been able to handle her.

He would have been able to handle her but he saw the Joker as well, laughing in the shadows, laughing as he painted her face.

Dick's head bowed and he stood silently listening to the sound of his heavy breathing. A small, humorless chuckle escaped his lips as he thought about how stupid he was acting. Shaking his head, he whipped off the tears from his face and smiled at his reflection in the mirror.

He didn't want the Titans to notice the pathetic mess he had made of himself. He picked up his mask and placed it delicately back on his face. The room was a mess so he quickly moved to put it back in order.

When he came back into the living room his friends were whispering and when they noticed him they quieted. Starfire grabbed Beast Boy and Cyborg and flew them in front of Robin.

"They wish apologize to you for being the bad of friends."

"Uh, sorry Rob, didn't realize you were that torn up about everything."

"Yeah, we were just messing with you."

Robin narrowed his eyes. He prayed they hadn't heard him crying.

"What are you going on about?"

"Well we heard you fling stuff around in the bathroom, so I guess we kinda made you mad."

Robin mentally breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn't heard him.

"No. It's okay, I wasn't paying any attention to you anyway. My mind was occupied."

"Oh phew, I thought you were going to explode on me like you had been these past couple of days. So do you wanna go finish the movie?"

"No, I think I'll sit this one out."

"We could watch a different movie."

"Goodnight guys."

The titans watched guiltily as Robin walked off to his room. Once inside, Robin started to get ready for bed. He laughed again at his reaction and imagined that he had played in some soap opera. However, if he did play in a soap opera it would have to be a comedy. He already had a crowd that laughed.

When he finished getting ready for bed, he flopped on his bed and fell asleep, smiling softly against the pillow.

His crowd simply smiled back at him as they watched him sleep.

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Okay phewww! I don't know about you but half the work for this thing is hitting the enter bar so your story isn't one scary paragraph! I wish fanfic had a setting that automatically put something in quotes on a new line it would be soooo helpful.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm always bothered by my stomach when I write about food because it makes me hungry...

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Robin awoke to the smell of bacon and quickly jumped out of bed to get ready for the morning. He frowned at the mirror when he examined himself to see how his hair looked. Something seemed strange about himself and he did not like it. He could not get his hair the way he wanted it and his costume looked off as well.

_Maybe_, he thought _I just need a new look, haircut, or something._

He decided it was just a bad appearance day and left his room. As he walked in the titans scrambled about like they were preparing a party and the guest came early.

"We are glad you awoke. We have prepared an apology of party for being the bad of friends."

Robin laughed and shook his head at the smiling girl floating before him.

"Star, think nothing of it. I acted like a scared little girl. It's not like the clown was going to jump out of the screen."

"But you looked so truly frightened when the mother was dying. I though…"

She trailed off when she heard Robin laughing.

"Look, I know I freaked out and all but I'm better now. I'd rather laugh then cry about it."

"I am glad you have recovered dear friend. Come join out breakfast smorgasbord!"

She engulfed him in a hug and flew them both to the table. Robin wheezed for air as she sat him down on the chair next to Raven.

"Wow, this looks great guys!"

"Yeah and BB here tried to ruin it by making nasty toe food instead of my beautiful meat!"

"Hey, my soybeans aren't ruining anything! You're the one missing out!"

"Shut up!" Raven growled, causing the gravy for the biscuits to explode on them.

"Ew, Nasty!"

"Ah man, I'm gonna be cleanin' gravy out of these parts for weeks now."

Just then the alarm went off startling the group from their normal routine.

"Titans move!"

The group had been called to a corporation building downtown. When they arrived, the building was empty. Robin crept forward and put his finger to his lips when he noticed an open door leading to the basement. He motioned for Cyborg and Raven to search the ground floor and descended the stairs with the others.

When they entered Starfire guided them with the light from her starbolts until they found the light switch. As soon as they slipped it on a voice called out.

"I'm disappointed in you Robin. You couldn't even finish him off."

"Where are you!"

"No worries, I have a new assignment for you. Kill the girl, oh and cinderblock will help."

A loud crash sounded and they found their gaze drawn to the vast room. Before them were rows and rows of robots each tied onto a chair and at the end of the room stood Cinderblock who was destroying the chairs step by step.

"Titans attack him he may hurt the girl! She must be inside ties to one of the chairs."

Starfire shot her starbolts while Beast Bot charged as a T-Rex. As they distracted the block, Robin scanned the bots trying to pick up any differences. Growling in frustration he ran to the nearest bot and ripped off the mask. He staggered back, skin cold, face pale. The man behind the mask had brown hair, brown eyes, just the same as the one before that he had almost killed.

It looked like a complete copy of that man but it was a doll. In an act of sudden desperation he lunged at the next Robot and stared into the brown eyes once more. Fear ceased him and he flew through the rows ripping off mask after mask only to be met with the same empty face.

He could hear the crowd cheer in the background. He stopped and stared helplessly into the face of the dolls. The crowds cheered but at what? The answer danced in front of him for a while then he realized as he looked at his colorful spandex costume. He was a performer. His stage was before him. It was his duty to entertain the crowd and if they laughed it must mean they enjoyed his show.

He grinned at the crowd his resolve back in place and summersaulted through the air to land on the bars on the ceiling. He surveyed the area looking again for any differences in the dummies; the green duo had drove cinderblock against the wall and the robots still sat in lines.

Something caught his eye at the front and back of the room. Twirling off the bar he sprinted from side to side of the room throwing buttons on each of the bot but the ones he had found different. He returned to the duo who had defeated cinderblock.

"Did you find the girl?" yelled Beast Boy.

"Not yet, Not yet." Robin replied.

"What do you mean not yet let's go!"

"No!" Robin screamed.

Just as he grabbed Beat Boy an explosion went off. One by one the bots exploded. The green duo screamed in horror but above the fire, above the shouts, they heard laughter. As the bots exploded their leader swooshed through the rubble to one dummy that had not exploded.

He untied the thing and removed the mask revealing blond hair. The duo rushed over to Robin to help the girl but he had already moved on to the other bot. He untied it and lifted off the mask.

His grin faltered as he stared into the red rimmed brown eyes he had seen on all the other dolls but this creature had blond hair. He ripped open the cocoon and removed a small child from her restraints. She cried softly and buried her head in Robin's neck.

"shh, little bird." He cooed. "The show had ended."

With Beast Boy and Starfire trailing him, he kicked open the door and stepped onto the first floor. Minutes later Raven and Cyborg appeared claiming to have heard the explosion. The ambulance came and the titans carefully put the women and child into the hands of the crew. Once they left Robin turned to face the angry glare of Starfire and Beast Boy.

"Why did you do the bombing of bots! It was unsafe."

"Yeah what if you missed a kid they'd be splattered on the walls by now."

"So you think I can't tell a robot from a person."

"No one's perfect. They were meant to trick you."

Beast Boy turned to Raven and Cyborg and explained to them the situation.

"Whoa Robin, that was way too risky. Even if you did know who the girl was you could have brought the building down."

"Look, I'm sure as soon as I got the girl the robots would have woken up and attacked me. I eliminated them before they became a problem. Besides the crowd loved it."

"What crowd? Slade? Yeah, I bet he was thrilled by your recklessness."

"Look guys, No one was hurt just relax. You need to smile a little bit more and I've been so grump recently. Let's take a break. I'll take you out to pizza."

The titans looked begrudgingly at each other before sighing.

"Okay but only if you buy."

"Hey, didn't I say I would take you out."

Robin laughed slightly at them and began walking with a merry step towards the pizza place two blocks down. The people moved to the side, respectful of their hero's as the group walked the streets but otherwise their presence was normal. Starfire had an extra spring in her step while she walked close to him.

Being happy that Robin's spirits returned, she easily forgave him for his stunt. When they arrived a server promptly greeted them and sat them on the outside patio in front of the restaurant.

"Okay so what do you guys want to order?"

"A huge veggie pizza."

"Man nobody wants that we should get a combination pizza."

"Too heavy, I'll have cheese."

"What? What about my meat."

"I can't eat meat!"

"Why don't we just order them all?"

"Okay."

"Sure."

"Works for me."

Robin looked up at their server.

"So, we'll take a large meat pizza, vegetarian pizza, and a cheese."

"Okay I'll have that right out for you."

The waiter smiled and then took the menus before departing. The titans sat contently for a few minutes sipping their water.

"I was thinking." Spoke Robin fingering his napkins. "I don't like my hair."

"That came out of nowhere." Raven rasped.

"It's been bothering me for a while. What do you think I should do with it."

"Just get it cut."

Robin frowned.

"Well I don't really want to cut it."

The titans looked at him thoughtfully. Suddenly, Beast Boy's eyes light up.

"Oh my gosh! You should totally dye your hair green like mine! Then we can have secret green hair meetings and talk about every one!"

He exclaimed while he wove his hands in the air. The group rolled their eyes but Robin's ears seemed to perk.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"You're not serious are you Robin?"

Robin looked thoughtfully at Beast Boy the boy on thought was bouncing in his seat with excitement. Coming to a conscious decision, Robin grinned.

"Let's do it"

"Alight!"

The smaller teen jumped out of his seat and swung a huge high five at Robin who returned it with equal force. The waiter interrupted them by carefully setting down the three large pizzas.

"I can't believe you are doing it." Raven muttered.

"I think it is a glorious idea. What a great way to show friendship perhaps I shall die my hair purple to match Raven's or would you desire to dye yours red like mine?"

Raven twitched.

"No just keep your hair the way it is."

"Oh," downheartedly answered Starfire.

"You could always dye it green like Robin and join the green hair society."

Beast Boy hinted as he pointed to his hair.

"Really? That would be very fun." She said brightly.

Cyborg choked on his pizza.

"Actually, um Star I really like your hair the way it is."

"Same, keep it."

"You think so! Thank you, dear friends."

Starfire brightly devoured three slices of pizza with mustard and Raven and Cyborg released their breath in relief. Once their pizza was devoured Robin paid with cash and before the change arrived was dragging Beast Boy out the restaurant.

"So I was thinking defiantly green but you should get a Mohawk"

"Dude that's the second best idea you have ever had. Well, here's the place. I love the chairs."

He said as he flopped into the nearest seat. Robin dragged him out and smiled pleasantly at the counter lady.

"We'd both like to get out hair done when you're ready for us."

"We're ready for one of you if you want to sit down right here."

Robin nodded at her, noticed the other titans entering the salon and panned the green rag doll off to the titans.

"So what can we do for you today? Not every day I have a hero in here."

She wrapped a white cloth around his neck.

"I want my hair dyed green like Beast Boys."

Her eyebrows shot up.

"Green? Wow, did you lose a bet or something."

"Just needed a change."

"Well that's quiet the change."

She laughed and went to get the hair dye. Another stylist led Beast Boy to the chair next to Robin. He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned as he told them he wanted a Mohawk. Rolling his eyes, Robin diverted his attention back to his stylist who led him over to the sink to wash his hair.

"One green head coming right up." She teased.

The titans all watched with anticipation as the stylist bleached his black hair and then began working the green dye in his hair. Beast Boy finished before him and everyone laughed at his new look. The other was still waiting with his eyes closed to drown out the sounds around him. He smiled slightly as he heard the excited chatter of the crowd around him.

He shook his head to silence them because he didn't want them to disturb the other customers and they listened. His stylist caused the titans to groan when she playfully put a divider in-between their view of Robin so they couldn't see her taking out the foil. She then started to rinse his hair and when she finished she turned him around to the mirror.

"What do you think?"

"This looks perfect! You did a great job. A little lighter than BBs but I think I like it more this way."

"Thank you."

"Hey guys, ready to see the finished product?"

"Just come out already, I'm dying over here!"

"I'm gonna borrow this."

Robin picked up a tray and used it to hide his head as he walked out from behind the divider.

"Oh come on!"

He walked closer to his team before he swooshed the tray away and set it down on the table next to him.

"Wow." Spoke Raven. "And here I thought you couldn't get any more bipolar."

The rest of the titans were stunned silent. A black piece of paper blew carelessly by their feet.

"This is so totally awesome!"

Beast Boy cheered as he turned into a puppy, gave Robin a giant wet doggy kiss and ran excitedly about his legs. Robin laughed and paid the people at the counter despite their wish to treat them. But as they left the ladies smiled because they had charged him half the actual amount due and he didn't notice.

The people on the streets always paid particular respect to their protectors. They didn't rush them for autographs, stare, or pressure them with gifts. They allowed them to live peacefully as any other citizen would. However, when Robin appeared on the streets with green hair even the politest among them stared.

There he went walking out of the hair salon with the rest of the titans. It was obvious that his hair choice had caused quite a stir among the titans just from observing the expressions of the group. Beast Boy was the only one who did not look surprised and was easily identified as the culprit.

It appeared Robin had either lost a bet with the shape shifter or decided his life needed a really big change and used Beast Boy as an example.

Everyone decided it was the first one.

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Yeah titans fun in this chapter :) But poor Robin it just goes downhill from here 8( okay i put a frowny face but what I'm really like is 8D hoped you liked the chap


	5. Chapter 5

Happy 4th of July everyone! ;) figured I'd go ahead and update for the holiday \(^o^)/

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Raven walked contently through the tower towards the living room. It had settled down since Robin's supposed change in hair fashion. The titans had adjusted to the new green head even though Jump city was having a hard time with it. Robin seemed to have grown a new sense of humor.

With his initiation into the green hair society, he could be found more often with Beast Boy aiding him with some form of a prank. The titans all took this as a pleasant change despite the extra water balloon thrown in their faces. Their strict and serious leader was finally relaxing and letting his more playful nature show.

He smiled more than usual but they were still working on the lines beneath his eyes which had yet to dissipate.

Cyborg always teased him that he should have dyed his hair ages ago. But Raven believed this lift of mode did not derive from Robin's new club but in the absence of a certain villain.

Slade had not shown his face for a while and Robin seemed to have no desire to track him down. She didn't blame her leader though, the man almost made him a murderer. She was musing over all these things during her meditation when she felt Starfire float to a similar pose next to her.

"Might I join you in your meditation?"

Raven moved to the side slightly to make room for Starfire. The pair had been spending more time together. Robin had not been training them as hard thus they had more free time. The two sat there undisturbed for about thirty-two minutes until the boys entered the room nosily.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were each staring intently at a DS in their hands determined to beat the other by completing the level in their game first. Robin laughed at them and stretched himself out on the couch and turned on the news.

"The news? Really man."

"Hey the preliminaries are coming up and I wanna see who's winning so far."

"Dude who cares, it's not like they do much. That's why we are here."

He shook his head with disbelief at them.

"A good leader builds a nation guys, come on you should know that."

"They're all corrupt and just run for the money."

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Maybe, but they all run with ideals. It's our job to make them the right ones."

"Can you even vote." Beast Boy teased.

Robin shot him a glare and returned to the TV. Raven's eyes squeezed shut tighter in an attempt to block out the noise. Starfire excused herself from Raven and floated gently on the coach next to Robin. Robin creased his brow at the screen. He didn't like the man who was slowly winning the states.

He remembered the man from Gotham. He had traced back business in the drug world to him but never had enough evident to bust the guy. So, he had to drop the case.

The man was well-liked by the people but as far as Robin was concerned he was bad news. The primary elections ended and Robin just stared at the screen flipping through his thoughts. He came out of his musing just in time to catch the latest piece of news. A seventeen year old girl had been shot and killed during a party at a friend's house.

Apparently the kids were shooting cans in the backyard while intoxicated and missed hitting her in the side. Her lung was punctured and she died. Starfire gasped next to him at the horrible news but Robin didn't seem to mind. Beast Boy and Cyborg shut their DS screens to pause their games when they heard the news.

"I hope those kids get time for what they did." Cyborg said.

"Why?" spoke Robin his head slightly tilted towards Cyborg's location with a hint of a smile on his face.

"They shot the poor girl in the lung. The idiots shouldn't have had the gun on them if they were gonna go get wasted."

"Well, at least someone didn't just die of alcohol poisoning."

"What makes that any better than getting shot!"

"Alcohol poisoning doesn't make much of a story. You don't see it on the news very often but getting shot defiantly makes the news. The people, no, the crowd simply enjoys it more."

Cyborg stared at Robin with his brow fixed. Their leader was taking death too lightly. He knew it was honorable in some people's minds to 'go out with a bang' but he never agreed with it. There was nothing wrong with growing old except the joint pain. Aging defined life in his eyes so to shun the rusty parts just to have a glorious death was unseemly.

"The way she died doesn't change the fact that she is dead. She's not finishing high school and going to college nor is she getting married. That and her family and friends are left to mourn her death."

Robin shook his head and turned around on the coach to face Cyborg.

"But the way she died does change the fact that she is dead. Seventy years from now if she died of old age it wouldn't make the news and her family would still mourn her. People don't care about you if you die naturally or even from some disease because nature took you. But, if nature doesn't take you, now people want to know about you. Now they want to feel sorry for you and morn your passage. It's all in the theatrics."

"That's just the media. It's not that no one cares about the elderly. It's the media who gossips. And it doesn't matter if everyone cares or morns the person's life the only thing that really matters was the girl who lost her life."

"She would have lost it eventually." Cyborg's face darkened.

"You could use that same terminally for a murderer who did it in cold blood. "

"Whoa" Robin said. He got up and put a hand on Cyborg's shoulder. "We're having a friendly discussion yes? No one meant to hurt anyone out there. All I'm saying is generally when you die the people only care if it's a show."

Cyborg made to say something but Robin interrupted him.

"Not that he's not guilty because he is and by all rights should go to jail."

Cyborg relaxed a little.

"Look if you're hinting slightly at glory at dyeing in battle I don't agree with you so let's agree to disagree okay?"

Robin cocked his head to the side and held out his hand.

"Agreed."

They shook hands and Robin went back to the television and Cyborg logged out of his DS and went to sit next to Raven. Raven blew her hair when she felt him sit next to her because she knew it meant he had something to talk to her about.

"So, what's on your mind."

He sighed.

"I could just be comin' over here to chill out you know."

"Right…."

"I was just wondering, with you being slightly empathetic, how is Robin doing. I mean because of the whole Slade thing. We didn't really talk about that night and I think we should have."

"Just because he has a different view on death doesn't mean there is something wrong. I think he's just saying that to make himself feel better about the whole thing."

"To me he was sincere."

A silence washed over them. They both gazed thoughtfully out the window.

"And Robin couldn't be happier recently. Slade's gone. I think that's all he cares about at the moment and I have to agree with him."

"I think I'm just surprised. He was freaking out so much last week I keep expecting him to do something else."

"He seems fine now. Let's just forget about it. He's a pretty strong guy."

Cyborg shrugged and sat back slightly as the sun crept further behind the clouds. Robin had excused himself form the TV a while ago and sat at this work place messing with his weapons. After thinking about it he decided to upgrade his gadgets. They looked the same as when he first joined the Titans and he was starting to feel bored of their monotonous existence.

He took out a sheet of paper and began a rough sketch for his new weapons. He liked his birdrangs for the most part. He just wanted to put gold triangles with the tips facing the blade along the wings.

He wrote on a small list that he needed gold spray. He looked at his Bo staff in the corner and underlined the word gold twice. He returned to his sketch where he was redesigning his bombs. He didn't like their old dish shape and decided to make them circular. He liked the dark color. Black would be perfect, like the old fashion bombs but new.

He designed them in the classic bomb form and humored himself by adding a fake wick. Putting that aside he walked over to his cabinet and got his chemicals out and in a sheltered case began testing the reaction of the smoke with certain chemicals until finally he found what he was looking for. Satisfied he got out his grapple hook and examined it.

_ 'Not much I can do with this'_, he thought. '_But wait.'_

He grinned as he remembered a certain material that might do the trick to spice up the grapple hook. He quickly gathered his things and headed out of the room.

"Hey guys I'm going over to see Claude for a few things."

"Alright." Cyborg yelled.

"Don't be gone too long friend." Spoke Starfire.

He made his way down the tower, to the dock and hopped in the boat. He was happy when he finally hit land. He never liked riding in boats. That was the downside to the tower. It was surrounded by water. Good for defense, not so much when you wanted to get out and could not fly.

Using the grapple hook, he swung his way onto the roof of the nearest building and began making his way towards the center of the city. When he reached the building he was looking for he slowly lowered himself four windows down. Carefully, he created an entrance and swung himself into the office creating a large bang on the floor.

"Criminy! What the hell! Can't you ever enter through the front door or maybe I should put a doorknob at the window."

Robin laughed.

Claude had creep out from his desk he had dived under which left his suit a little disarrayed. His brown hair laid slightly askew on his head despite his efforts to smooth it out in the morning.

"I guess I just like catching you off guard."

Claude shook his head and sat down in his desk.

"So what do you have for me today?"

"Just a couple upgrades and some new toys I thought up."

Robin grinned and put his weapon blue prints before the older male.

"Hmm, by the looks of it shouldn't take that long but about the bombs, really? I though you stopped at the hair but rainbow explosions?"

"It's just the smoke."

"Yeah know, sometimes you teen titans really remind me about the teen part."

"Hey, they'll be awesome. Just you wait till you see them."

"Yes I'm sure the crowd of news cameras will be thrilled. Robin the Boy Wonder showing his gay pride support by creating rainbow bombs and the hair was to remind the people to take care of our environment."

" Let's leave the media out of this. If that's the only thing they are dishing out it wouldn't be anything to worry about but recently they have not gotten off my tail about my hair."

Claude laughed.

"Well, anything else Wonder Boy?"

Robin shot him a peeved look and shook his head no.

"Alright my boys should have your new toys ready for you in a couple days so swing by then but I've got a meeting in five minutes so you better fly off little birdie."

"I don't know why I get my stuff from you."

"Because I'm the best in Jump and part of Daddy's company."

Robin snorted at the man. He then ran at the wall, kicked off of it to do a flip, landed in crouch and dived out the window.

"Holy shit! Damn kid!"

Claude shook his head scowling because he knew Robin just did that to get back at him for the teasing. He sat down and scanned the blueprints to his computer and sent them to his people so they could begin working. Gathering up his papers, he walked into the next room where his colleges were already arriving.

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hope u liked the chapter not much going on but character development but it'll heat up soon don't worry ~ ;3


	6. Chapter 6

phewww another one typed up. I have all this stuff written up its just sitting around in a journal of mine. ;P

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Robin returned excitedly to the tower carrying a full backpack. He rushed into his work office and began throwing out his old weapons and replacing them with the new ones he had just picked up from Claude's place. The first thing he replaced was his yellow utility belt for a new black one. He had added some new weapons and needed a place to put them thus he had designed a new belt.

He drew out four golden throwing knives and slipped them into the sheaths on the belt. Next he put the bombs in the pouches and the birdarangs into the pouch next to it. His now golden Bo staff fit nicely next to the knives.

Finally, he drew out a long, black whip that was to be his grapple hook and put it on his belt. It was perfect. He hadn't been too sure that Claude would be able to pull off all the new gadgets but he did. He was eager to try them out and his heart leap with excitement when he heard the alarm go off. He, running into the main room, meet the titans.

"Cyborg, what's the situation?"

"Dude, new utility belt, I like it."

Everyone nodded in approval.

"Thanks but the alarm?"

"Right, someone started a fire in one of the corporation buildings. The firefighters have already started evacuating the floors and are starting to put out the fire but the criminal has fled to the roof with a hostage. The way is blocked off so the Police cannot get through."

"Alright, BB you get Cyborg to the roof. Star and Raven don't act until I get there. He's trapped. He'll kill the hostage faster than you think. Now move out!"

The girls flew off and Beast Boy shifted into a pterodactyl and left with Cyborg in his claws. Robin was close behind them on his speed boat. Using his whip he latched onto the nearest building when he reached the shore and swung his way up onto the roof. He began running across the rooftops and stopped before he reached the destined roof.

The other titans had already begun to surround the building but the villain had not notice yet. Robin could see him and so could his crowd. His hair was blond and he was dressed in jeans and a white button up shirt.

He held a middle-aged woman at gunpoint. Robin flipped open his communicator and waited for his team to pick up with the crowd leaning over to hear what he was about to say.

"Okay, listen carefully. Raven I want you to creep close to the shadows. Use your dark magic to take hold of the gun but block the trigger first. He'll fire if startled. Beast Boy take Cyborg to the police so he can work with them and update us on the status of the building. Then report here but don't act until instructed. Starfire follow my lead."

Beast Boy flew off. Unfortunately, by now the man had noticed the presence of the titans and was threateningly pressing the gun on the temple of the woman.

"Come closer and I'll shot the girl."

He yelled across at them. Robin did a double take as the crowd around him grinned but shook them off and focused at the task at hand.

"Beneath you is a fire eating its way through floor at your feet and around you if 1,000ft of air. I'm wondering what your real problem is."

"Shutup!"

Robin's face darkened as the man twisted the arm of the girl causing her to cry out. Raven hadn't moved yet. He observed the distance between him and the male. If it was the night this man wouldn't have been a problem. He would have been able to use the cover of darkness to get him but in broad daylight you had to be more carefully.

His hand twitched over his throwing knives.

Finally, Raven moved.

She surrounded the gun and took it apart causing the man to cry out. He grabbed the woman roughly by the hair and smashed her against the wall. In this small moment Robin had been waiting like a lion ready to pounce as soon as he saw Raven's magic. Somersaulting across the building, he landed on his toes and in one fluid motion flung a golden knife at his enemy.

The knife embedded itself into the man's shoulder with a cheer from the crowd. His vision blurred and he loosened his grip causing the woman to slide to the floor. Starfire used his confusion to slam a starbolt into his back knocking him out.

Robin rushed forward and quickly tided up the man and told Raven to take him to the police. Turning to Starfire, he saw her attempting to bring the woman back to consciousness. He stepped forward and, bending down, took the woman from her. He could almost feel the crowd leaning in with their hands on his shoulders to brace themselves and the deep breath they held.

Not a sound was made as he put his hand to the back of the woman's throat and felt for her pulse.

He tried feebly to find it but he couldn't and he drew his hand back in horror and grief. In contrast to his horror, the crowd around him busted into laughter as if he just delivered the punch line.

He knew for some reason they weren't laughing at him but he couldn't fathom what they were laughing at. At that time he wouldn't understand because he couldn't. He didn't want to understand. But he would understand in time.

"She's, she's dead Star."

He looked up at her dazed. He'd seen death before plenty of times. Hell, loads of people in Gotham were killed in front of his eyes, butchered, hung, shredded. But, this time the crowd was laughing and he could not remember if they had always been there to laugh. Starfire's eyes watered and she busted into tears.

She had not witnessed death as much as Robin and to her there was no crowd, just the beating of her own heart. As Starfire slowly flied the girl down to the paramedics, Robin felt the tips of his lips twitch. One of the audience in the crowd guffawed with such a hearty sound he found it hard to stop himself from joining.

He stopped fighting himself and began laughing with the crowd. He couldn't help it because the man was making him laugh. He cracked his whip between giggles and starting making his way across the rooftops until he was stopped by the buzz of his communicator.

"Friend, I was worried you just disappeared."

Robin's good mood evaporated as soon as he had heard Starfire's voice.

"Sorry Star, I'm heading back to the tower. I'll wait up for you."

He felt guilt kick in over his behavior. He shouldn't have laughed. Someone had just died and he had no business leaving Starfire behind. He saw Starfire some distance off jumping from building to building so he swung over to meet her halfway. She stopped in front of him.

"I could not think of a happy memory."

She whispered. He sighed and gathered her into a hug. She stayed in his arms for a while. He couldn't tell how long and didn't care. Finally, Starfire pushed off of Robin and smiled gently at him and he smiled back. She hovered in the air and floated slowly towards the tower. Upon arriving, they were greeted cheerfully by the team who were hiding there sadness at the events.

"Good work team. You did your best."

"Heard about what happened. Sorry, man."

"Nah, it is fine. Stuff happens; it's all part of the job."

He smiled at them and they smiled back.

"Now, dude what is with the new gadgets?"

"I just got bored of the old ones."

"Darker look, you're not going Raven on us are you?"

"No, no. I don't think Raven is dying her hair anytime soon do you?"

The group laughed and Robin entertained the idea of dropping green paint on Raven.

"Besides, I think I'm going to let my original black hair grow out. I'm going to have some funky roots for a while."

"Good. I liked it better black."

Raven said. The group rolled their eyes.

"Of course you liked it black."

They dissolved into their normal sections and Robin slouched onto the TV couch. His thoughts wandered over the day. The girl had died but the crowd had laughed. He wanted to know why and in a sick way he wanted to see someone else die to find out why.

This urge drove him to get up and leave the room. He wasn't sure what to do when got to the comfort of his quarters. How could he see death when it was his job to stop it? He would never sit and watch a murder without stopping him and people don't just walk around dying, most of the time. It left him with only one possible option, a video.

He wasn't sure how the crowd would react or if they would even care about the video but he would find out. He left his room and slipped into Beast Boy's room to look through his DVDs. He selected the most violent R rated movie he could find and retreated back to his room. He didn't want anyone to know what he was doing.

He didn't want to imagine how they would react so he didn't.

Opening his laptop, he plugged in his earphones and put in the movie. As he watched the movie he noted the reaction of the crowd.

When someone was hurt, they smiled. Killed slightly, they huffed in disappoint or grinned widely but when someone was poetically murdered with blood flying left and right the whole crowd laughed silently, for after all it was just a video. He paused the film on the body of a man and stared fascinatingly at it.

Why did the crowd laugh at it? Perhaps it was the awkward angle of the head and limbs, the uncharacteristic eyes staring as if they were having an everlasting don't blink contest with life itself, or the tongue, hanging blue in the mouth. But maybe, maybe it had nothing to do with the blood dripping down the cold skin.

The crowd's amusement was dying. Maybe it had to do with the way he died just like the girl on the news. The public had loved the girl because she was shot which meant the crowd laughed because the man was murdered.

He sat up excitedly on his bed and shut his laptop at his great discovery. He jumped up and rushed out of the room and slide into the living room.

"Well someone looks excited. What have you been up to?"

"You won't believe it but I figured it out!"

"What?"

"The crowd, the crowd! I understand the crowd!"

"What crowd?"

"I was really stumped about it. The crowd kept laughing and I couldn't understand why. I mean they don't just laugh at nothing. They have to be laughing at something. So I experimented with it. Not that I hurt anyone, no, no. It was just a test and it worked. It really worked. Not that I agree with why they laugh."

"Robin slow down. What are you talking about!"

"Just something I discovered. It doesn't matter just a personal discovery."

"What crowd do you refer to? Did Robin speak to the news people with the strange black things they shove at us?"

Starfire asked. Robin shook his head and waved his hands.

"No, no. The crowd that always cheers and laughs, you know like the people and the press."

"Man, so you did talk to the press."

"No I…"

"Where they asking about the girl?"

"You should just ignore them. They don't need to harass us about our tactics."

Robin squirmed slightly when he realized they weren't listening but where surrounding him so he couldn't leave. He didn't mind though. He didn't ask Beast Boy to borrow the DVD and Raven's hair looked really sleek. Did she just wash it?Why did the team always wear the same outfits but of course they were their costumes. Did that make Cyborg naked all the time? He wished he could walk around naked like the naked man in the tree. Starfire was talking. He told himself he was supposed to be listening and focused on what she was saying.

"you okay you…"

He wondered why some cats liked water and others didn't. He wanted to move. He hated standing still. He knocked into Beast Boy as he snuck away and gave him a lopsided grin.

They tried to get him to respond but he raced happily out of the room. He ran down the halls and threw open the doors to his training room. He felt great, like he had never lived and just know he was alive with passion. He leaped onto his balancing beam and began doing tricks.

The titans hesitantly poked their heads in the room just in time to catch Robin doing his famous quadruple somersault. Their worry for his behavior disappeared at their awe for his performance. They had seen his flips during a fight but this was art.

His flexibility, the way he soared through the air only to reach and grab for a trapeze and in on fluid movement to flip onto the platform. It was then that Robin noticed their presence.

"Hello my VIP crowd. Welcome to the show!"

"You look absolutely marvelous!"

"No kidding, why didn't you put on a show earlier."

Raven smacked Beast Boy in the back of the head.

"Mind if we watch." She questioned.

"Not at all, I wouldn't kick you out. You're my friends and I do put on the greatest show on earth."

"A little cocky, huh? Well seeing what you're capable of you have probably earned it."

Robin just crackled with laughter and once again took off feeling the air whip by his face. No one ever brought up his actions again.

But, sometimes things cannot be forgotten. The clues, the signs adding up like a small pile of popcorn popping into a large bowl were all there.

Robin needed them to notice.

He needed them to act.

He needed them to stop it early.

No one did.

* * *

oooo my super foreboding chapter the next one is going to kill XD


	7. Chapter 7

Just went to see the new Batman movie and it was awesome! You should see this one in theaters. :)

So their isn't as much dialogue as usual in this chap hope you don't mind. Instead you get to see inside Robs head. 0.o A scary place to be right now I'm sure you'll see ;)

* * *

Robin paced the tower. The others had long gone to bed but he had slept, tossing and turning, for about three hours and woken up with the urge to move. He walked up to the main computer and began checking the surveillance cameras. However, he was too restless to sit still and soon abandoned this practice.

He decided to go out and patrol the city. That always seemed to put him at ease and he could move around easily. In a matter of minutes he was prowling the roof of a very tall building.

It was a quiet night for the city was asleep.

The crowd was staring out at him with a glazed expression. They looked so bored that he began to feel bad for them. He longed for something to occur, anything to alleviate the melancholy that descended upon his crowd.

Did the titans ever feel this bored around him?

He started to sweat slightly as fear crept over his eyes. The look, that very look the crowd was giving him. He remembered it so clearly, so vividly. He began to breathe heavily, eyes darting from face to face in the crowd. They were bored of him and for reasons unknown to him this terrified him.

He stumbled backwards and fell clumsily to the floor. His chest felt heavy like a huge weight was closing around him from all sides. The crowd crept closer and closer and closer.

Robin put his hand over his eyes but felt an even greater fear take over him as the darkness descended. He flung his hands violently away from his face. He tried to scoot away from the crowd by using his hand to drag his body backwards.

It was their eyes, the same look as before; he saw it so much in Gotham.

One man leaded forward. He gazed long and hard at the trembling form before him. The way Robin's eyes were dilated, the ragged breathing, the sweat, the fear and the man grinned. As is if one entity, the crowd began laughing. All around him they were laughing. Robin's arms gave out and he fell flat on his back but the crowd was behind him, beside him, around him.

He could not escape the upturned lips, the rapid rising and falling of their chests, their white teeth, their laugh, all directed at him. Robin jumped up and screamed in an attempt to frighten them but failed to cause an effect.

"Shut-up!"

He flung his hands at them to drive them away.

"Shut the hell up!"

He started walking forward.

"Go away! Go away! Stop laughing!"

His voice descended into a shrill lament carried by the wind towards the sea. Water streamed from his eyes and nose. He took off in a run hoping to leave the crowd behind but they kept up. He jumped across a building but his limbs were shaking and he began to fall.

Nothing but instinct directed him as he grabbed his whip and launched it onto the building to soften his fall. He felt a jolt rip at his shoulder as it caught his fall. He pressed a button on the whip which dropped its hold on the building causing him to hit the floor awkwardly upon his feet.

The world grew slow with the rhythm of the crowd and hazy film clouded his world. Through the mantra of their laughter, he picked up footsteps. Someone had entered the alley and was walking towards him. The crowd didn't mind the person. They didn't even notice him.

He gazed intensely at the figure without moving, without alerting him of his presence. The laughter got louder and louder and louder. Ringing in his ear, his ear, his ear and suddenly he knew how to make it stop.

In one fluid notion, as if his limbs had never been shaking at all, he removed the golden knife from his belt and jumped upon the figure before him inserting the blade into the figure's chest. The figure screamed and its hands flew up to push him away as it tried to run away but he advanced and created another hole next to the first and another and another and another.

The crowd's laughter turned upon the man and he found himself laughing with relief that his instinct had worked. They were no longer breathing down his neck but were enjoying the spectacle he created. Their attention was directed at something else not him. A brilliant red painted his costume, staining his gloves and speckling his face.

Robin stood up trampling the figure beneath him. His laughter had cooled and the crowd had softened into a light chuckle but otherwise smiled pleasantly at him. He sighed with relief, his adrenaline wearing off.

The weight had left his chest and breathing came easier. He looked at his hands and frowned. He looked like a complete mess and his costume was probably stained unless he soaked it fast.

Taking out his whip he traveled by roof until he reached the lake.

Robin jumped down from the building and into the lake to swim his way to the titans tower. His costume would get clean and he'd get his morning exercise in. He glanced at the crowd but they were still contently watching him.

He sighed once more in relief and began swimming.

* * *

When Raven got up she had been surprised to see Robin awake at the kitchen table. He was staring intensely at the T.V. playing the six o'clock news.

"You're up early."

"I've been up a while. I actually went on patrol last night because I was restless."

"Ah, anything eventful?"

She pulled out a chair and sat down with her cup of earl grey.

"I put on a performance. Not sure if the news caught it yet. I'm watching to find out."

"Really, what did you do?"

"I just entertained the crowd with my throwing knives because they got bored but…"

Raven cocked her head to the side.

"You've been referring to this crowd a lot Robin and I have no idea what you are talking about."

"I'm referring to the crowd."

"What crowd?"

"The only crowd here."

"Who are the crowd?"

"I don't know."

"How can you not know?"

"I don't know their names or what they do. I just know they always watch to be entertained."

"And what do they watch exactly?"

"Me."

Raven sat back in her chair and observed Robin who flicked his attention back to the television. He appeared relaxed and she didn't sense anything off about him.

"Robin is the crowd here now?"

"Can't you see them?"

"No."

"Don't be ridiculous you can't not see them. They are surrounding us."

Raven slowly looked around. Her brow fixed and she kept taking small rapid sips of her tea while setting the cup down each time in-between.

"You mean the press right? The paparazzi."

He stared at her for a while letting the silence envelope them then sighed and looked down.

"Yes Raven, the press. I'm talking about the press."

He turned his eyes toward the TV and gazed melancholy at the screen. Raven shifted slightly in her seat and got up. She was uncomfortable and decided to meditate rather than sit in the room with Robin. He was probably just pulling a new prank on her. But she didn't believe it for a second.

She didn't know how to react to him so she decided not to. The other titan began filling the kitchen an hour later and getting their breakfast.

"Oh come on. Why do you always have to watch the news? Why can't we just watch a TV show or something? I'd even be okay with a soap opera." Cyborg exclaimed.

Robin glanced at him uneasily.

"I'm just looking for my performance."

"You put on a show without inviting us!" Beast Boy cried.

Robin looked sheepishly at them and rubbed the back of his neck.

"It was just a spar of the moment thing. The, the crowd pressured me into it."

"Really, the press made you do it? Come on was it a girl?"

"No, no it was well, the crowd."

He gestured halfheartedly around them and pulled his gloves up a little.

"That's weird usually the people leave us alone. What part of the town were you in?"

Robin stared at Cyborg and he felt his lips twitch slightly.

"I wasn't too far from the tower actually. I was near the tall insurance building."

"Really, huh."

Cyborg sat back in his chair and gazed thoughtfully out the window.

"I mean I guess that happens every now and then. Get this, when I was walking by the park one day a ton of kids came up to me and started imploring me to show them my sonic cannon. Of course I said no but then their parents came up to me and started blabbing about how much the kids adore me and how happy it would make them if I showed them my tricks. So, I eventually gave in. I was surrounded by them on all sides begging me. It would just seem wrong to refuse them."

"I know!" Robin replied excitedly.

"Same with me only they looked so melancholy I wanted to cheer them up. It was like an obligation. Like, I had to do it."

"Gosh those kids certainly know how to get to you. Don't they ?"

Robin beamed at him and nodded.

"Have any of you seen Raven . I was going to do the Metrion Azarath activity with her?" Starfire inquired.

"I saw her this morning. She's kinda grumpy though. I'd leave her alone. She looked at me like I was crazy when I told her about the whole crowd performance thing."

Cyborg just laughed.

"Probably cuz everyone's scared of her. I don't think the crowds can handle her."

Robin shrugged.

"My crowd doesn't mind her."

"Cuz they respect her not cuz they don't think she's scary."

"Perhaps she is just upset that she is never praised by the crowd."

"Guys, I have the best idea ever! Let's throw Raven a random party celebrating her. We can all drink herbal tea and watch horror movies!"

"I'm in. She's been acting strange around me recently." Robin said.

"What a fabulous idea!"

"Alright Boo-yah! Let's head to the training room and plan so she doesn't catch us."

* * *

When Raven entered the kitchen it was deserted. She growled and floated the dished into the sink and poured herself some fresh tea. Her eyes drifted to the television where the news was flashing. A man had been murdered in an alleyway next to the Insurance Company.

Their currently was no known suspects and no real evidence. The man was stabbed repeatedly with a knife. For some reason Raven felt her stomach curl and a sickening feeling surround he. She didn't know why but she felt afraid.

* * *

"So purple and navy balloons are a must."

"Add the black confetti."

"We should get Saw!"

"Ah, no way that movie just disturbs me."

"Are you kidding me it's hilarious. Besides, Raven likes horror movies."

"There are plenty of other horror movies out there."

"Hey, I'm leader. It's happening." Robin smirked.

Cyborg rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Dude I'm with Rob great movie."

"Okay, okay it's done."

"I shall make the special Tamaranean porridge of appreciation."

"Umm actually Star, Cy here was gonna make something but you can help."

"Oh, well I will be glad to be of assistance."

"Alright so here's the deal. We want this to take her by surprise tonight when she comes down to dinner so everyone better use your sneaking skills to get this stuff ready."

"Shouldn't be too hard, Raven loves to socialize and all."

The group all laughed and then split into groups. Beast Boy and Robin were responsible for buying the supplies. The boys set out in Cyborg's car with Robin at the wheel. The pair started talking about possible prank to pull on Cyborg the next time he got into his car though they both knew they wouldn't dare mess up the T-car.

Robin notice the crowd where starting to shift and resituate a lot but he contented them by ever so often talking to Beast Boy about which Saw they wanted and certain scene that they loved. Robin for the most part just led Beast Boy on because he only started the first one a couple years ago before deciding it was terrible.

Strange because now it seemed like it was on the top of his movie list. The pair went to the game store first both grinning for it had been a while since the two of them had been seen alone and together with their identical hair.

Beast Boy wanted to listen to the Beatles so as they drove to the Party Store "Maxwell Silver Hammer" blared through the speakers.

In the store the pair quickly got distracted by all the cheap trinkets for party favors the store carried. After twenty minutes of fun they grabbed the supplies they needed and left the store. On the way back Robin had monopolized the stereo and was blasting "Scaretale" by Nightwish.

"This better cheer Raven up or I don't know what will. She gets a random party and it's not even her birthday."

"Hey, she deserves it she's been tense recently. Too bad she didn't catch my show yesterday. She would have laughed herself silly."

"Seriously no way! I'm the funny guy around here even if you did join the awesome hair club. So wha'd yah do?"

"A new trick with the throwing knives I just got. I'll have to show it to you someday, maybe tomorrow. It's hysterical but then again I won't show you the same trick. I'll have to show you something bigger and better, something worthy of my VIP crowd. Don't worry it won't be long. I just gotta plan some stuff."

"I'll be expecting greatness now, no pressure."

The two laughed and Robin glanced in the rear view mirror uneasily. They were getting impatient, bored, melancholy. They had seen him perform a great act already and now it seemed they wouldn't be satisfied without it.

Robin stepped on the gas and turned up the music. His eyes had moistened so he bite the corner of his lip. Beast Boy sat singing loudly next to him.

When they got to the tower BB flew the stuff to his room from the outside of the tower while Robin ran to open the window for him. Once Beast Boy was inside, Robin excused himself and ran into his work room. He searched the computers and began pulling up news stories, videos, pictures, all of his performance.

Robin looked hard at the four screens. The crowd was silent and gazed at Robin whose lips began to twitch, breathing pick up and his face turn rosy until he erupted with laughter.

The crowd looked from Robin to the screens and began laughing with their ringleader. Robin flopped into the chair and brought his hands to his hair shrieking with a cold demented laugh.

* * *

Told you the next one was gonna kill! I actually battled for a long time whether or not to have him kill someone or just mortally wound a person because now that he's crossed that line the end result will be a lot more intense. But as I was typing this up I got a fabulous idea when all this is through to get him back in the hero world and not just back in the sane person realm. :) But he has a long road ahead of him and plenty of angst and hurt comfort coming up and Batman is just one chapter away. =D After this next one he'll pop up. Tell me what you thought of the chap. :)


	8. Chapter 8

This one took longer than the others to upload but it is a bit longer than most. :)

* * *

The three Titans all paused from decorating the tower.

"Wow. What is he a laughing at?"

They gave each other quire looks and put down their decoration to start walking down the hall. Raven meet them when she peaked her head out of her room.

"Having an individual party?"

The team shrugged and they crept silently towards the workroom. Beast Boy slowly peaked inside the room and then opened wide the door. The group filed in the room and looked curiously at Robin. Raven stared at the screen and felt a sickening feeling descended upon her. Robin turned to look at them and got up from his chair and bowed deeply.

"Welcome my beautiful VIP crowd. Have you ever seen anything as funny as this?"

The Titans stared at him uneasily looking from the laughing Robin to the screens.

"Wait Wait, ah ah ah it's-a spoil-your show."

"Robin are you laughing at that man's death, about how he was stabbed repeatedly to death?"

Raven questioned her voice hard and uneasy.

"Of course."

Robin swung towards them his arms fanned out at his sides, eyes wide, head cocked the right, laughing. The Titans flinched back as if they had been struck.

"The rain falls down and hits the ground is not a life the same? It sinks into the dirt and surrounds the beautiful corpse. Hahe ehe"

"What the hell's gotten into you? Are you high?!"

Robin shook his head and rubbed his eyes.

"No I think you are. We're running a test."

Raven floated over to Robin who was trying to stop laughing while she took his blood. She walked over to the computer and ran the test but he was clean.

"He's clean, no alcohol , no crack, pot, heroine, whatever you want to call that crap."

"Ha! Thank you Raven you just gave me an idea for my next show."

Robin tried to rush out of the room but once again Cyborg blocked his path.

"Slow down. We'd like to know what's going on. You are freaking us out."

"Am I? Good! But I need to work on my show so kindly move aside over there. See you're right here and should be there. Got it?"

Cyborg grabbed Robin's wrist and stared at where his eyes should be.

"What is wrong with you? Did that run in with Slade those few times make you lose your mind or something?"

"Cyborg"

"No, I think the stress is finally getting to you. You are taking at least a week off. No fighting with us, no research, no nothing that has to do with crime. Only think that would be better would be if you removed that mask of yours and lived like a normal citizen to clear that head of yours."

Robin was frowning now as he looked at his VIP. The crowd wasn't amused. They wanted him to work on his performance but they also knew the VIP crowd couldn't be touched.

"Don't think for on moment you can run this show. I'm the Ringleader here Cyborg. Don't you dare act otherwise."

"Friends, please let's not fight."

Raven took Starfire's cue and used her magic to separate Cyborg and Robin.

"Cyborgs right Robin. You've been on edge recently. I think a week off would be a good idea. You could stay here and relax or something."

"I have to say I'm with Raven on this one sorry dude." Beast Boy said.

Robin looked from Titan to Titan.

"Fine a week off besides then I can concentrate on my show so you guys will stop being so testy. Now can I get by? I'd like to go to my room."

"Okay, no work promise?"

Cyborg held out his hand and Robin shook on it before slipping by him to head down the hallway and into his room.

"He had up the news report of the man who was murdered next to the insurance company."

"Someone was murdered?"

"Last night, stabbed to death."

"Was not Robin putting on his show. Why did he not notice? It must be the stress that is beating him."

"I hope so Starfire. I really hope so."

* * *

For the next couple days Cyborg led the team who saw little to nothing of their true leader. No one minded the absence of Robin because they assumed he was either relaxing or had gone out in his civilian identity. However, when Robin did come out of his room they couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. Robin never seemed to notice their discomfort.

He would always smile every now and then, flashing them a toothy smile for a greeting. They weren't upset that he seemed to be enjoying his time off but most felt it unnatural.

There was one time that Raven and Starfire caught him without a smile and the site of him made them worry. He had looked exhausted or as if in despair. It seemed to be one or the other but they could not say. Around the third day of his break Robin appeared to be making it a game to increase their anxiety.

While Beast Boy started speaking with him, he refused to respond and continued watching the pasta he was making. When Beast Boy said his name Robin's head shot up and demanded that he never call him that for it was not his name. He was to be called Ringleader. Since that day he would never talk with them unless they called him that. So being unwilling to play his game, they mostly ignored him. Come Friday night the titans were all ready to go out for pizza when Starfire spoke up.

"Should we not ask Robin to join us for pizza?"

"You can ask him. I've no desire to talk to someone who keeps playing that name game."

"I…"

"Ignore BB, Star. Go ahead and ask him. I'm sure he'll come with us. What's more stress free then a fun night out with friends?" S

tarfire smiled and nodded. She flew over to the room and alighted softly on the ground before the door.

"Robin are you in there? We were wondering if you would like to go to the fun night and pizza."

The door creaked open a crack and a hand popped out. It began feeling around the door before landing on Robin's name plate. The hand traced the outer edges of the thing, pried it off and slide back into the room.

"Why have you, ep!"

The hand popped back out with a new golden plate and carefully hung it back where the old one had been. Ringleader was written across it in big letters. The hand them pointed to the name and underlined it before retreating back into the room. Starfire shifted from foot to foot.

"Um, Ringleader? Would you like to join us for pizza?"

"I would love to Star! But you see the show isn't quite ready yet. I must set it up. So eat and enjoy! I will join you in a little while with my show that you'll finally see."

She nodded hastily feeling ridiculous because he couldn't see her and rushed towards the titans.

"I guess he's not coming?"

"He told me he would join in a little while but I think he should get more rest."

"Why? What did he say?"

"Only that we will get to see this show of his. But I do not like his talk of the show. He always gets a weird voice and a look that makes me wish he did not smile at all. And why must he push this Ringleader on us? We don't like him. We want our Robin!"

"Calm down Star. I'm sure he's just being an ass because we made him take a week off."

"I'm not so sure. What's with him and this crowd?" Raven said.

"Look people you're all over analyzing. He's pulling your guy's legs. That's what we green hair people like to do. Let us just forget him and get pizza."

"Yeah I'm so in with BB on this. I'm tired of dealing with his PMSing."

"So we're taking your car right?"

They didn't talk much on the ride to the pizza place, not that they would have heard much with Cyborg blasting Pitbull the entire time. When they arrived their spirits were lifted. It was nice to escape the tower. A waiter with red hair named Amy walked them to their favorite outside spot; the one they had occupied the day Robin decided to dye his hair. The waiter took the order of chicken alfredo pizza and a pepperoni pizza.

"So out of curiosity when we got you all those balloons, did you even care at all after Robin's psycho moment." Beast Boy asked.

"Well they were kinda nice even if it wasn't a party like you guys planned. It was still surprising in a good way."

"Well that's a relief cuz man was that dinner awkward."

"It's not like there was much to talk about besides Robin. Which I don't think anyone cared to mention after that freaky laughing thing."

"Yeah um, I thought we agreed to forget about him for now."

"But friend Robin is joining us in a little bit. Perhaps we should talk through this so as not to have this awe of kward when he arrives."

"Or work out what we need to say to him. He's obviously pretty mad we made him take a week off. I for one want to ask him where he was during that stabbing that occurred a week ago, according to you." She pointed at Cyborg. "This show of his happened right next to it."

"And what do you mean by wanting to ask this Raven! Perhaps he was blocks away and hear nothing or maybe this killer did it silently so the man died before he could utter a sound"

"Calm down Star. I'm sure she didn't mean to accuse anyone right Raven."

"No, I don't mean to accuse only clarify a sickening suspicion about someone who constantly claims he entertained a crowd with throwing knives."

Starfire abruptly got up along with Cyborg who put his hands out between them.

"You need to use the Restroom Star. It's inside, Starfire over there."

Starfire huffed and stormed towards the restroom while Raven calmly sipped her glass of water.

"You didn't have to say that. We came here to relax and you're picking a fight."

"And you don't find his behavior off."

"Dude he's been acting weird even before then and he has no reason to off that guy."

"Exactly and he doesn't need a reason. Ever since Slade slipped those toxins in him he's been acting funny. What's more every time we run into Slade he has something planned for Robin and when he attacks the city and our Boy Wonder is at home because we demanded it he all but stops his plan while laughing at us and leaves! He just leaves. Like if he doesn't have Robin to mess with who gives a crap about destroying the titans or taking over the city."

"So what are you trying to say? That Robin's working for Slade. Somehow I don't think he would have let him drug him."

"No, just that perhaps we should keep a closer eye on him. Maybe that drug did more than we expected."

"So now you are saying my dear Robin has been drugged to make him some psychopath. I don't know much about humans but I do know you can't just make someone evil with drugs otherwise he would have used it on him instead of the probes on us the first time."

She sat down knocking the table in the process. The drinks shook. The waiter returned and set the pizzas in the center of the table.

"Enjoy your food."

The group shoveled food onto their plates and began eating in silence neither side trusting themselves to make a comment that would not agitate the they were eating small explosions began to go off as if someone had rolled crackle balls all over the outside eating area.

"What the hell!"

The titans jolted up and a new row of bombs went off this time fogging the area with multicolored smoke. Suddenly a loud voice rang out from atop the building.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, welcome my dear crowd to the greatest show you've ever seen."

A figure flipped over them and alighted in the street before them. He wore black spandex tights with a black utility belt. He had a tight fitting spandex red coat with long coat tails trimmed in gold glitter. White gloves and black boots with gold tipped metal adorned his limbs. His face was painted white with a splash of red surrounding his right eye which was a bright blue. His hair was jet black with green tips at the end.

From behind him he flipped out a top hat, bowed at them, and put it on.

"Who are you and what do you want!" Cyborg asked.

"My name is Ringleader my fine young fellow and I will be your host this evening."

"Wait Ringleader?"

"Yes yes, my dear VIP crowd like I've been telling you but shhh the show has begun. Tonight I will be leading you through four magnificent acts. The first one is our fabulous Amy at the knife throwing extravaganza!"

The Titans, uncertain whether this person was Robin, hesitated in moving. Would Robin really discard his mask? The shoes, hair and voice were all too familiar. When they heard him mention Amy they all followed his pointed arms towards a tent that was set up on the corner of the street. Ringleader threw a match on it and it burst into flames.

He could hear the crowd cheering louder and louder in excitement. He flipped in the air and flung his golden knives. The titans took a step back when the tent burst into flames and gasped at what was reviled Amy their waiter was locked down on an up and down red and gold spinning circle.

They just began to recover when three golden knives imbedded themselves in Amy's chest causing her to lurch and blood to squirt and drip smoothly, slowly around her but never on the floor. Cyborg was the first to act and his voice boomed above the others shocking them back to life.

"Titans! Take him down."

Ringleader laughed and flipped onto the nearest parked car.

"Thank you but now the second act. The tight rope walkers my friends! Watch as these lovely volunteers try to reach the million dollars. I have placed on the telephone wire! But no flying my ladies. It will distract our performers."

Two spot lights flicked on when Ringleader once again pressed a button. As soon as the light came on he flung a bomb at the group to scatter them and swung his golden bow staff at Raven.

"You sick monster."

"Oh come now Raven! Right you should be mad I forgot to pay my respects."

He flipped back and stood in front of the beam holding the money. While he had been distracting Raven the people had stood up from their platform and with their pupils dilated and mouths spurring random things about the money they put their first foot on the wire. They were too drugged to comprehend their surroundings. Their bodies cracked on the floor.

"This performance was inspired by my lovely VIP Raven who asked me one night if I was high."

Cyborg rushed forward in a rage and swung with all his might at him but he gracefully flipped out of the way. An explosion sounded and suddenly the money was burning. Raven lifted the nearest objects and began flinging them at Ringleader her eyes wide with horror and anger.

"Robin haha no fucking way! I..I no just No!"

She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed forward with greater force. Starfire backed her up and Cyborg closed in around him with Beast Boy next to him. Ringleader's eyes sparkled as he guffawed with his crowd dancing in and out of the titans attack to form a striking dance of mockery at their attack attempts.

The crowd was greatly pleased he had never seen them laugh so joyfully. It made him so relieved, so incredibly relieved. Noticing the Titans were closing in he used his whip to swing on top a roof. It took a few seconds to realize he had fled to the roofs but in that time he was able to survey his handiwork.

The bodies of the tightrope walkers lay mangled at the poles and the waiters tongue rolled blue as she spun. The crowd laughed on but in an instant he was seized with an comprehensible terror at the sight and suddenly the crowd seemed to be laughing at him. He shrieked and flung his hands to his face quickly causing himself to fall backwards.

Raven and Starfire heard the yell and bolted into the air to search the roof. He backed up until he hit a wall then turned around and found the door to the roof. He cried in delight when the door opened and slipped inside. He began sobbing and slide down against the door but one person from the crowd leaned over him and whispered in his ear.

"Run. Hide."

On demand he sprung up and raced down the stairs where he came upon a nice green corridor with doors on each side. He rushed forward and tried the first door. It was locked so he moved on to the next door. It was locked so he moved on to the next.

Finally, a door opened and he almost fell as it flung open. He slammed the door shut and locked it.

Turning to the room, he observed a green walled office with a few papers and desk knickknacks. Two large similar file cabinets stood aloft on the side of the desk. A large window stood before him and he slowly walked up to it. He had a perfect view of the aftermath and could see the cleanup crew taking away the bodies and the ruble.

What he didn't see was the Titans.

His team had vanished and despite the fear welled up in his breast he felt angry.

Where had his VIP gone?

The pizza joint had just been attacked.

The police had the area surrounding the building under lock down but where were his Titans?

They never followed through. They never looked for clues and they never noticed anything, noticed anything. They never noticed.

Tears where streaming down his face but he didn't understand why. He felt like dying but he couldn't understand. His crowd was so happy and he had had so much fun but here he cried. There was no hope. He wanted to die. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the door unlocking and footsteps behind him moving softly next to him.

"I liked your show."

Ringleader nodded in acknowledgement but otherwise continued to stare ahead.

"I noticed you didn't have a crew though."

She playfully poked his chest so he turned to look at her a shadow of a grin upon his face. She was Asian with pin straight hair down to her shoulder. She wore black pants and a white button up shirt.

"Really, I didn't see you in the crowd."

She turned towards the window.

"There's an excellent view from up here and I could hear everything once I cracked that window open. Animals would make the show better. The name's Danielle. I run a dog show as a not so formal job down in the streets. I would love to talk about adding them to your show and I know people who might want to help you preform. They moved here from Gotham and we all know the type of work that goes on in that city."

"Gotham you say. I'm a great fan of that city. I would love to meet these friends of yours my dear."

He flipped his hat back on his head and put his arm over shoulder. They walked out into the hallway.

* * *

Okay so I know it's an OC that might seem like she will be in a lot but _don't worry_. I will not put her in more than necessary and she goes away after a few chapters. He just really needed some crew members. Anyway, what did you guys think of Ringleader? After I thought of the name I couldn't think of anything more fitting. It was a while since I wrote this so as I was typing it up I was like whoa a lot sure happened in this chap. Lol. Anyway yeah the moment you wanted ~Batman arrives in the next chapter~ ;)


	9. Chapter 9

Can you tell I like the book Brave New World? Yes i think you can with this chapter. :)

* * *

Robin's blood sample shined on the monitor in the work room. Raven worked through the results in an attempt to understand the drugs running through his system that he had originally told them to ignore. She had never seen the stuff it showed was in his blood and had no idea what it did or how to neutralize it.

Her only fact was that it did not belong. She didn't even know if it was the cause of Robin's behavior. It would have been easier if they still had Robin's blood but all they had were the results from the last test.

* * *

"So..."

Ringleader spoke as he swung his legs over a chair and sat down with his elbows resting on the back of it.

"Danielle is bringing her trained dogs to the show."

He gestured to a couple mutts snarling in their cage.

"Not the prettiest beasts but nothing a little paint and ribbons cannot fix, maybe even some breath mints. But, what my fine performers do you have? Gentlemen first so we'll start with you in the red dress."

He pointed to a blond haired girl with a skin tight dress and blue eyes.

"Well, I juggle various things like clubs or balls while balancing on certain items."

"Keep it coming."

"I could easily fling knives or bombs out and if I'm on top of say a ball I can program it to explode ten seconds after I jump off of it."

She chuckled slightly and Ringleader nodded his head.

"Sound good dear but what are you called?"

"Red Bang."

"Alright how about a lady, now you sir."

He gestured to a man on his right with bright red hair and a white shirt with a yellow collar.

"I am a clown."

"Really? What do your acts generally consist of?"

"I take a volunteer from the audience and dehumanize them in front of the crowd, kind of like propaganda."

The group all laughed.

"Yes, yes I think I've heard of your work. Now you seem to be an interesting group."

He gestured to a group of ten individuals dressed in black and white. The group rushed about on cue and formed a clump and held a sign while one stepped in front and began dramatically gesturing out the words on the sign which read.

'We do nothing like the ones mentioned before us but we do perform and like your ideas.'

They flipped the sign over.

'We wish to embellish your show by simply being there amidst the show.'

"That sounds fabulous we shall have you."

* * *

Raven, seeing no more need to stare at the toxins she could not understand, got up from the work room and entered the main hall where her team was having lunch.

"I've never seen anything like what the results showed."

"And I just let it go because he said not to worry about it. That was a great discussion." Cyborg said bitterly.

"Could we not send the results to a lab to get a professional analysis?" Beast Boy spoke.

"My judgment is good enough besides I'm not sure we want to admit to the public that's Robin."

"Raven is right. We need to capture our friend and get this drug out of him so he can think clearly and I do not think the public will understand. He has been most horrific."

"So I've been thinking on this and I can't come up with another way but I think Slade did this. Just think, that bastard threw one drug in him and sent him on a Hercules task every time we saw him to wind up with Hades in the third circle of hell. This has to be his doing."

"But where would he find the time for all that? Sorry, but that's a lot of drugs."

"Oh no, of course. We're so stupid."

"What!"

"Remember when we had to search for Robin that one night in the rain after fighting the sladebots because he broke away from us. We found him in a cave beaten up right?"

"Yeah."

"Why the hell would he have sat down to go to sleep if he just kicked ass?"

"He was pretty beaten up."

"Which he would have received while fighting those things and ignored. It's so obvious he didn't win. Slade dragged him away, after knocking him on the head, injected him with toxins, and then made it look like Robin won the fight so we wouldn't be suspicious."

"Holy shit."

"Yes, quite."

"We must find Slade and make him give us the antidote."

"Easier said than done Star."

* * *

"Okay, Okay, so there she was shrieking in the middle of the store and she had begun to feel the effect of the drug. I finally let her go but at the same time my assistant threw her baby off the second floor and the idiot jumped right after it. Killed them both."

The group erupted with laughter. Ringleader turned away from the group feeling the bile rising up in his throat. He heard the crowd laugh and knew they wanted him to join in but all he felt was horror and disgust wash over him. All at once the world seemed to be closing in around him.

A blanket of blackness began to descend upon him, to suffocate him. The group looked at him for he had begun to make strangling noises that sounded like choking or crying. They could not tell. However, they paid him no mind for they were used to violent madmen and the many episodes that overcame them. Danielle got up from her seat and put a hand on his back and began to whisper in his ear.

At first he did not respond to her but after a while it seemed like her coaxing was working. He felt like the crowd was choking him. He could vaguely hear the person talking next to him but he concentrated more on breathing.

The crowd was pressing in all around him laughing in his ear. He could hardly think but he thought he heard a girl's voicing telling him to kill something. In that instant he bottled up and flung a golden knife into a man next to the girl in the red dress. The crowd backed off instantly and he began to laugh with relief.

* * *

"Just the man we needed to see. Titans move out!"

The group quickly answered the alarm's calling, and began rushing towards the factories in the suburbs of the city. They immediately began attacking their target with brutal force uncommon to the group. The fighting went on until both sides seemed dim then Cyborg cried out having cornered their target on the side of a skyscraper.

"What did you put in Robin?"

"We know you're the one that put a drug in his system so where's the antidote."

"The drug I administered to Robin was a very simply chemical if you have any brains you should be able to figure it out."

Slade jumped backwards towards the building behind him but he still couldn't find an opening in the Titans.

"You are lying." Starfire shrieked.

"Yeah we got rid of that one. Did you really expect us to only notice the one on the surface?"

Slade said nothing for a while but frowned beneath his mask.

"It looks like I'm not the only one playing with the little bird, pity."

"What do you mean?"

"It really is a pity. I was going to make something out of him but it looks like someone went and broke his wings. Your leader is nuts Titans. I do look forward to seeing you try to stop his murder shows."

Slade had seen an opening between Cyborg and Beast Boy and took it. He was lost in the city in a matter of minutes.

* * *

Ringleader whipped his teary eyes from laughing and sat down with the group.

"Okay, we need a grand show, something bigger than your street shows. You're not street performers anymore. You're in the circus!"

The group, unmoved as the dead body next to them laid flat on the floor, cheered excitedly.

"When the show is announced I want the glitter, the confetti, the dogs, the blood. All of it at once and a tightrope. I need that. Danielle, are you writing this down?"

"But of course Ringleader."

"Now first act, you! We need to do something about your props though they really are lacking. Plenty of time to practice. Mimes! I want you to do what I heard the dead man over there talking with you about, okay? Perfect!"

"I was putting something together similar to that street act I told everyone about but more big."

"Marvelous but I want to put you in twice, I do love clowns, so come up with something better. Other people we'll figure you out later. But I want a detailed plan of your act by Friday. This show has to be perfect just huge and grand so that the boss comes down to see."

Danielle looked up from what she was writing.

"The boss?"

"Yes, yes, he must come see the show. I want him to laugh. I want him to see, yes, yes. To see and laugh and know."

* * *

"Dammit, he got away!"

"It doesn't matter. He felt sincere. It wasn't him."

The titans all looked down and Beast Boy sat down in defeat.

"Then who the heck messed with him? Do you think this is some Hive trick or wait Mad Mod always messed with our heads. You think it was him?"

Cyborg sighed and sat down next to Beast Boy. The girls did the same so they formed a small circle on the top of the building nine stories in the sky.

"If he wasn't in jail I would have agreed with you. I thought for sure Slade did that to Robin. It was all too simple."

* * *

"Yes, he would know instantly upon seeing the show. He would laugh and know."

Danielle looked at him curiously while the others fidgeted. They would rather not listen to him rave after what happened to the guy on the floor.

"Know what Ringleader?"

"The crowd, he would know the crowd. I don't even know them but he would and that would make all the difference because if you know the crowd you know them. And in knowing them you find it."

Danielle leaned back looking skeptical.

"Find what Ringleader?"

"The wings."

* * *

The elderly man slowly tipped the tea pot so that the rose colored liquid could escape and send tiny droplets to rise in the air.

"Thank you Alfred."

Alfred nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen. Bruce reached his hand forward and grasped his teacup's handle to pick it up and take a sip.

* * *

"Slade seemed to think that some other criminal did it."

"And how much thought did he put into that, two seconds?"

"Robin did say those chemicals had been in him for a long time."

"Friends I have a suggestion." She said timidly with great weight."What if, what if we are wrong? What if the chemical does nothing? What if it is just Robin?"

* * *

"What wings?"

"The wings the boss gave me. They're missing. I lost them in the crowd but he will know who took them and give them back to me."

* * *

"Alfred we haven't heard from Dick in a while."

"No sir, we have not."

"It just entered my mind because he always calls on that day but he didn't yesterday."

"I am sure he is very busy."

* * *

"What do you mean, just him!"

"Shut up Beast Boy."

"The stress, on my planet it is not uncommon for warriors to go mad with war."

* * *

Danielle smiled.

"He must be a crazy man if he knows this crowd of yours."

* * *

"Yes well, he must be going crazy with all that work. He always calls."

* * *

"You're saying Robin's crazy!"

* * *

"No, he knows the crowd..."

* * *

"I'm sure he knows what's good for him."

* * *

"I don't think you know how humans work Star!"

* * *

"and my wings."

* * *

She flew away.

* * *

He spilled the tea.

* * *

Okay I just have to say this is one of my favorite chapter I have written. I love rereading it. So I bet according to the writing law it must be one of my worst chapters but oh well. :p If you have ever read Brave New World their is a chapter with this style in it that I instantly fell in love with. Also you have no idea how annoying it is to type with a sliced finger. I almost took a chuck out of my finger with our good old bread cutter(the ones that look like a saw) and now typing feels awkward. :( Batman was in this chap as promised I'll be easing him in from here on out so he'll now be in or mention in all the chapters :)


	10. Chapter 10

Yay a new chap! This one is dedicated to one of the guest reviewers who swatted my knuckles to get me typing this one.^^ This chap was actually supposed to be two chapters but because I took longer than usual I combined them together.

* * *

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the greatest show you've ever seen!"

Ringleader proclaimed as he balanced expertly on a black tight rope connecting two large skyscrapers in the central city square. A group of people had formed around him while people in the background walked by the spectacle. Two men from atop the six foot buildings around them began dumping large barrels of confetti down upon the people. It fluttered gently in the wind catching the rays of sun as it came down.

More people began to stop. The crowd surrounded Ringleader cheering as the show started to begin. It made him relieved to know they were excited for his show and fueled his need to perform.

"Today, I have for you a whole…"

He paused as a line shot out from one of the buildings creating a new tightrope.

"New…"

He paused again and flipped in the air.

"Crew!"

He landed shakily onto the much thicker rope and the one behind him caught fire. Among the people mimes had started walking about them creating invisible walls as they went.

"And now please direct your attention to my lovely lady to my right."

The people glanced at where Ringleader seemed to be pointing. The crowd gave a welcoming round of applause. A beautiful blond haired lady had rolled atop a brilliant red and gold ball balancing poles with little black balls on the top. The mimes create a path free of people for her to perform. She began doing various tricks delighting the audience and Ringleader's crowd. More and more people began gathering around the supposed street performers until finally Ringleader spoke.

"Now my temporary crowd, behold her final act."

The girl grinned widely and threw the black balls into the air where they exploded with red liquid upsetting the audience who were covered in it. Some people left angrily while others stayed.A rope was dropped down from the building closest to her and she kicked off the ball she was standing on, spinning it into the crowd. Ten seconds later it exploded in fire. People flew backwards and some caught flame by the highly flammable red liquid covering them. Laughter rose above the screaming of the people.

"Yes, yes my lovely crowd, beautiful performance ahehehe. Sing again my temporary showmen!"

The crowd roared with delight and he flipped from the rope and landed in the center of the town square where he flung his knives into the people with the grace of the moving wind. He grabbed the nearest person he could get his hands on and dragged them to the roof of the building and held them over the edge.

The crowd cheered with happy anticipation but as she dangled there he was once again seized by an uncompromisable terror that had become so familiar to him outside of his common mania episodes. The woman screamed and his hands began to shake. He heard the crowd laughing, in his ear, mocking him, joking about him.

The woman noticed the change in him.

She noticed the tears moving down his face and began begging him to let her up, to not hurt her, drop her, kill her.

He heard her dimly through the roar of the crowd and nodded vigorously. He didn't want her to die. He didn't want her to fall. He wanted his mother to survive and the bolt to hold. He began to shakily lift her from over the edge but his hands shook too hard and his sweat was too slick. She fell from his hands, slipped from his grasp, fell.

But as he watched her fall despair in his heart someone caught her. He let out a large breath of relief and found himself laughing again.

"Robin! Calm down we know what's wrong. We know about the toxins."

Ringleader bolted up from where he had been leaning over the building all remnants of Richard vanishing from his eyes. The crowd laughed with him once more.

"My VIP! I am so happy you are here. The second act can begin; behold the marvelous stunt man and his friend the clown!"

Cyborg began moving towards Robin who playfully tossed his knives around him and flipped onto the rope below. The girls followed him but the boys took to the floor to fight the clown and stunt man to keep them from harming the civilians. This proved very difficult for there were many people and the pair was an expert at havoc.

The stunt man used explosives while the clown joked and used laughing gas. Ringleader smiled happily at the girls following him and began running across the rope with his arms spread out to steady himself. When he reached the next building, he pulled out his whip and swung on top of the building. The girls followed closely behind.

"Stop running or we will shot."

"Bang." Laughed Ringleader as he pretended to stumble over from a gunshot.

"Robin, snap out of it! This crowd of yours doesn't exist. You're killing people! The people you swore to protect."

Ringleader's smile dropped from his face into a frown and his brows angled down ward in an angry glare.

"I have told you before I'm not Robin. I have no wings. They were ripped from my body when I made the crowd sing but the circus is here. So call me Ringerleader the master of the show!"

"You are Robin!"

Starfire yelled sending a green bolt hurtling towards him. He twisted and turned to dodge it but Raven came around and slammed him from behind. She flew him across the roof and he landed with a thud. Like a spring, he sprung up from the ground and flung a bomb at them that exploded in a cloud of colorful sparks and colorful smoke.

His face looked consorted in confusion and fear. He was failing. His crowd laughed getting louder louder still but the VIP refused to grin.

"Why are you attacking me? Do you not like my show VIP? They're laughing! Can't you hear them Raven? You should be laughing."

He once again flipped onto the rope and then into the civilians below.

"Danielle the dogs. Here our beautifully trained dogs."

He turned to face the girl's hesitant smile on his face.

"I'm going to make you smile and laugh. Dear team, you work too hard."

At that moment boxes all over the street were opened and out ran millions of rabid dogs splattered in red and gold with ribbons on their tails and ears. But Ringleader made a mistake. He had jumped too close to Cyborg and Beast Boy and the four heroes were closing around him. He started to panic at their hostile approach and glanced around wildly like an animal.

Yet, when the titans where upon him a gun went off four times and the team had to dodge out of the way.

"Looked like you needed help Ringleader. Let's clear out. Shows over folks!"

At Danielle's command the circus crew disappeared into the alleys. Danielle pointed her gun at the people and threatened to shot the nearest child if the titans intervened. She also kindly told them she had a bomb on the building behind them she would detonate if they bothered them. The titans stood helplessly surrounded by the screams of the people and the approaching police sirens.

They all knew if Robin was their leader he would have had a plan to save the hostages but they didn't know what to do.

Danielle leaned over and put a hand on Ringleader who was shaking and stiff and guided him into an alley away from the group. They hated the show. It had been a failure and now the crowd laughed at him.

"Hush, shh."

She soothed him into the black sports car she had parked on the curb. After putting him in the backseat she got in the front and sped off forcing the people out of the way.

"Hush, Ringleader."

She said when she heard a sob from the backseat.

"What you freakin' out about? Didn't your crowd like the show?"

She sighed when she heard him choking and pulled over the car abruptly into the nearest alley. She unbuckled her seat-belt and climbed over the seats to sit next to him.

"Hush, hush, what you cryin' bout? Those Titans ruin your show?"

She grabbed his head in her hands forcefully and brought their heads together so their foreheads were toughing. Ringleader barely reacted to her the crowd was too close to him and he was paralyzed with fright. He found it hard to find any oxygen they weren't taking from the air around him. He knew he had to preform to shake them off but this time he couldn't stand to. Their laughter was too loud and their faces too close.

"Hush now, look why don't we get this boss of yours over and plan on an even bigger show one that takes into account a distracting crowd yes? Hey! Ringleader, buck up!"

His wet eyes fluttered and stared into her deep brown ones. His thoughts drifted to the boss.

"I already have the boss' show."He whispered shakily. "The crowd isn't happy."

"Hush, that's great we can start getting this show ready then right? Your crowd will be happy about that."

But Ringleader was done talking and when Danielle pulled away he put his head in his hands and sobbed smearing the red and white makeup on his face. Danielle sighed and climbed back into the front seat of the car and began driving back to her house in the suburbs of the city.

Richard had lost all sense of the world around him. He was not even aware of his crowd anymore everything had faded into the darkness leaving his mind empty yet he stared ahead fully awake.

* * *

Bruce got his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed Richard's number sending a signal to the satellite in outer space and back to Richard's phone at Titan's Tower.

* * *

Cyborg stopped outside of Robin's room when he heard a cellphone ring.

"Hey guys! I think someone's calling Robin."

The group gathered outside the room to hear the last ring go off.

* * *

Bruce grumbled in frustration when Richard didn't answer and walked down to the Batcave. He quickly shoved on this cowl and cape and used the code from the computer to call Richard's Titan's communicator.

* * *

When Robin's communicator went off the Titans looked around to make sure no one had dialed him.

"Who do you thinks trying to call him?"

"Wait a minute." Raven spoke. "They called his cellphone first. His secret identity cell phone which means they might know about those toxins or whatever's going on in this head. Maybe they can help us."

Starfire gasped.

"Then we must get in that room!"

She charged at the door with her green starbolts glowing on her hands. Beast Boy grabbed her before she could slam into the door.

"Star, wait! You know our security. You cannot break that door open."

Her starbolts faded when her expression turned sad. The communicator had stopped going off.

* * *

Now Batman was angry. Not only had Richard abruptly dropped contact with him the last two months after having called him every week prior but he was ignoring his call. If Richard couldn't answer his call, Robin could respond to Batman. Batman dialed the Titan's main computer link while mentally going over exactly what he was going to yell at him about.

* * *

The Titan's hearts skipped a beat when they heard their main computer had picked up a signal. The group rushed into the main room. Whoever it was really wanted to get ahold of Robin which meant they might not be unaware of their leader's fate. They silently hopped it was a coincidence because if not it would mean Robin's true condition might have been figured out.

Raven and Starfire had done a great job explaining Robin's absence during such frightening time for the city. The pair had come up with a story to protect Robin from the judgment of others they thought would not have his best interest at heart.

He needed to be helped and treated. To the public, he would have become just another murderer that needed to be locked away or terminated if necessary. Starfire pressed the receive button on their computer and the screen came to life. Standing before them on the screen appeared an angry looked Batman.

"Where is Robin? If his main computer goes off should he not be in the room to learn the situation!"

The titans gaped in shock partly from surprise and partly from self-realized stupidity. Why hadn't they called Batman? He was Robin's mentor and most likely knew what Robin had slipped into. Raven recovered first because she had the most control over her emotions.

"He isn't here. There's well..."

"What?" Batman growled when she trailed off.

The Titans looked at Raven questioningly. The gears in her head where turning. There was no doubt in her mind that she and the Titans where working to help Robin but would Batman? She decided to test the grounds a little before telling him the problem.

"Were you the one that called Robin on his cell and communicator earlier?"

"You haven't answered my question. Use your detective skills Azarathian."

Raven nodded at him.

"He's sick."

"How sick?"

"Very."

Batman was silent and so was Raven. They saw him turn and mumble to someone briefly off screen.

"What's wrong with him?"

"What do you know about the toxins in his blood stream?"

"He was poisoned?"

"He told us they've been there for a while, that there's nothing he can do about them."

He paled considerably and his breath caught in his throat briefly.

"Where is he?"

"So you do know."

"Tell me what's wrong with him."

"He's crazy." Starfire said. "He went made with war and has made sport out of death. Please if you are his K'norfka, help us make Robin Robin again. He'll need you."

Both sides where silent, both taking in what was said. This was the first time the Titans all agreed Starfire was right and then heard it aloud. It was just Robin.

"I'm on my way."

Batman slammed his hand on the computer terminating the connection. He moved in a slowed sprint as he rushed to the Batwing and took off. He knew he couldn't leave Gotham unguarded. As much as he hated to ask for help Batman flipped open his communicating screen and dialed the Justice League main computer. The league picked up rather quickly seeing as a call from the Bat usually meant mass world hysteria or some similar disaster.

"Batman, what's the situation?"

Bruce inwardly groaned because of everyone that could have answered it had to be the Boy Scout, the most noisy, involved Boy Scout.

"I'm leaving Gotham for a while I need someone to watch it."

Superman's face flashed with concern.

"Is it Robin? Is he okay?"

"Clark" He growled.

"Right, yes. We'll look after your city. Bring him home safely."

They both cut the link at the same time and after an hour of flying Batman could see the edges of Jump City creeping into view. Taking that as his cue he flipped several switches in the Batwing and dove into the river leading straight to the heart of Jump City and ultimately Titan's Tower.

The river provided him protection against wondering eyes that the night wasn't there to offer him. Gliding through the water the Batwing slowed to a stop in front of a rocky shore. It slowly rose to the surface and the top slipped open. Batman jumped out keeping to the shadows as he made his way to the tower while his ride bubbled back beneath the protection of the greenish-blue water.

He knew the security codes well; he had helped Robin come up with them. It had been another part of Robin's training to create a top-rated system. Once inside he wasted no time in going to the Titan's security center and removing all footage throughout the tower of the last month. However, he needed to know when Robin's behavior had started and for that he had to ask the Titans.

He walked through the halls towards the main room but something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, a name plaque with the name Ringleader written across it in gold etching on a red background.

He looked down at the small number pad on the door and on impulse punched the date Richard's parents had died and the door slide open.

He walked inside talking in the room of his young protégé.

The Robin uniform laid tossed in the corner of the room and shreds of red and black fabric littered the floor covered in gold glitter. The bed was a mess, the covers long since wretched from it onto the floor. Richard's pictures from his album scattered the floor. Memories of his parents and Bruce laid smiling up at him.

"You are here."

He turned and saw a Tamarian girl with fiery red hair in the doorway. She wasn't intimidated by the menacing appearance of this costume but she looked full of sorrow yet, he noted, she was still able to fly.

"When was the first time Robin started acting strange."

She smiled gently.

"A month ago after Slade had slipped toxins into his blood, we have samples if you want to see."

She didn't wait for him to answer and floated across the hall towards the main room but turned to the right and entered the room before it. Batman followed her into the work room and watched silently as she pulled up the results from Robin's blood they had taken weeks ago.

She moved away from the computer chair to stand behind it and Batman moved forward, took the chair and began studying the results. It was all the usual toxins. His failure staring up at him but he saw something else beneath the surface.

"I need the chemical analysis of the drug Deathstroke injected him with and how and what you used to get it out of his system."

Starfire hesitated slightly because of his use of Slade's other name but it wasn't hard to figure out what he meant and she left the room to find Cyborg. He couldn't help but feel angry as he stared at the results of Robin's blood. He should have called. Richard knew better than that. He was trained better. But his anger stemmed more from the panic rising in his breast.

Richard was running through the city mad as a dog. His son, parading the city, mad, crazy, nuts, insane just like the Joker.

"Here are the files for what you asked."

Batman turned and saw Cyborg holding out the files nervously. He snatched them and began spreading them on the desk before him. The other Titans remained near the door but Starfire had once again returned next to his chair.

She began telling him about Robin's behavior, about every strange quirk he had developed. She also told him, with surprising detail, the Titan's interaction's with Ringleader. How they linked the stabbing that one night to Robin and then Robin's shows he had put on, the pizza place and park. The other Titans looked around uncomfortably while Starfire relayed Robin's insanity before them.

In the back of their mind it surprised them how forward and serious the girl was being.

"We have tried multiple times to track or find him but he covers his tracks well. But I have noticed a pattern in all this."

The Titans looked at Starfire questioningly. Batman continued to examine the results his knuckles turning white beneath his gloves as he listened to the atrocities his son had committed. It was safer to examine the results but despite his indifferent air, his stoic face, Starfire's voice got softer, gentler, as if she could read him, like she understood.

"He's never harmed us. When he attacks us it's to drive us back so we don't interfere with his show. He calls us his VIP crowd. He thinks we will laugh at his show and despite his insanity he's always happy to see us. I don't think he understands we are on different sides or that there are even sides. He says we are part of his crowd and I believe you will be too."

Batman turned to look at her.

"We are his VIP because we are his precious friends but you are his K'norfka. You are much more sacred then we are. I wonder what he will see you as."

She looked thoughtfully at him but her gaze held something deeper and he recognized it, confidence. He had given her not just hope that Robin would be better but confidence that he would save his son.

Her own confidence comforted him and as he gazed at the Tamarian smiling gently up at him he understood why his son loved his team so much.

* * *

So as I was reading over what I've written for the story I noticed I never really explain where those toxins in Robin's blood stream came from because it never seemed relevant to do so. With that said I was just wondering if you guys would want me to throw in an explanation somewhere for a few lines or more. Well hope you liked the chap. Love you all :)


	11. Chapter 11

Happy updating :) oh and I guess I will throw in an explanation to the toxins so don't worry I won't leave you hanging. The style in this chap is kinda weird sorry if it irritates anyone 3.3

* * *

It was one week since Batman had arrived in Jump City. The Titans had slightly expected him to help them with the city. He didn't. No one but the Titans knew he was there. He stayed at the Tower immersed in the work room or went out at night to stalk the city for traces of the new villain.

Most of the Titans stayed out of his way except a certain green eyed alien girl. She was almost his partner in his search. He sent her out during the day to follow leads for him or she just sat quietly behind his chair watching his search for his wayward child.

* * *

On the edge of the city Ringleader was preparing his people for the show he had been planning and forming in his head since the day he gave his first street side show. His boss was in town. He had heard whispers of him through his performers and it sent shivers of excitement down his spine every time he heard a mention of the man. His crowd didn't agree with him and for some reason they seemed unsettled when he thought of him.

However, they were constantly urging him to set the show up or put on a side show. He missed the Titans, his VIP crowd, his shows kept him away too much but the crowd had to be entertained and he was on a tour.

He sent one last grin to his performers before turning around and walking towards the car where Danielle was waiting for him. His performers cheered, grabbed their bags and began dispersing toward the city.

* * *

The Titans got the call from the police moments later. Something was stirring downtown that didn't seem right to them. They had spotted a lot of circus characters pouring in and running about the city but they had caused no chaos yet so they couldn't make a move. The Titans knew it had to be Ringleader.

When the connection died the team held their breath for what felt like hours. Raven went to get Starfire from the workroom where Batman was also located. Once the group was ready, they moved out with Batman at their heels.

* * *

Ringleader walked casually through the busy people on a Monday afternoon the crowd following near his throat. The sky was a brilliant blue with slight cumulus clouds in the south side of it. As he approached the center of the city, he was suddenly aware of how noisy the traffic could be.

Cars honked angrily around him and he shook his head at their impatience. Honestly, he had to get to the center of the city for his boss. It wasn't his fault the architect designed it to be an intersection. When he set up his platform, he walked up the thing leaving the lone traffic police heading his way for his crew to handle. He flipped his top hat in his hand and set it onto his head.

With the cue done, random people surrounding the entire square in a large circle flipped on similar black hats. His crowd quieted for the show was about to begin.

A slightly opaque film covered the group till the entire area was enclosed by a large circus tent. The people next to where the film touched the ground discovered quickly that they could enter the tent but not leave it. They began to panic.

A loud voice rang out among the people so they stopped to listen. The voice came from Ringleader on his stand with a mike in his hand.

"Ladies and Gents,

Todays the Day,

To Find the Way,

Into Your Soul,

The Boss is Here,

So Grab your Beer.

Come Laugh with Me.

Come Laugh, Laugh, Laugh!"

His voice faltered a little from his spot as he looked up and saw the Titans perched on a rooftop. A large grin spread across his face and he turned towards them even though his crowd wined at him.

"Fire Hair Burning Bright,

Skin the Glistens in the Night,

Metal shining with the Moon,

Green highlights the Buffoon,

Precious Crew,

my Dears,

Let the first act commence!"

At his command ropes shot out from the force field and littered the sky like a giant net above them. People scurried to get inside but they could not open the doors. Scattered throughout the crowd some people were removing their coats revealing brightly colored clown outfits. Their top hats flew off to reveal bright green hair.

The Titans gasped and the clowns began speaking in a chorus. A large number of them were placed throughout the area so that their voices sounded distinct and collective.

"What do you call a bird with wings Ripped Out Before Infernal Nature?"

They all held up a box and ripped out the bottom letting squirming figures fall onto the floor.

"A decapiwinged robin!"

The people shrieked in horror as the figures were clearly seen to be robin's with their wings freshly chopped off. They staggered around on the floor coating it in blood.

"Wow, what a sight but what's the difference between the people and the robin's?"

Men and women all around the group stood up on stilts that electrocuted anyone who touched them. Many people were burned in their clumsy attempts to run away. The stilts wearers were dressed in sparking gold costumes and held red ribbons in their hands.

"I don't know. What is the difference?"

The people in the top hats lining the edge of the tent grinned and held up their black poles with dead robin's stacked at the end. The clowns spoke.

"One's Decapiarmed."

As the words were spoken the clowns flipped an electric saw out of their coats and cut through the arms of people in the street. The Titans freaked, having been distracted by Ringleader. They now jumped into the sea of people and began charging at the clowns with the police backing them up.

Starfire remained on the roof and her eyes followed Ringleader as he flipped onto the ropes in the sky and began swinging and twirling on them. His laughter growing with every drop of blood spilt from down below. The crowd was so happy they were watching the show and not him. He was free of them, of their gaze, their stare, their breath.

It was in that moment that Batman jumped out from the shadows and suddenly Ringleader's entire crowd was staring at him. Their laughter had died in their throats but Robin turned to him with an excited look upon his face.

"The Boss is Here,

Throw out a Cheer!"

The crowd obeyed his command and erupted into cheers along with many of his crew.

"Robin." Bruce choked out.

"My Boss, Why so Gloom?

I'll make this City Bloom.

Smile, Boss, Smile."

Ringleader crackled with laughter as he dropped bombs onto the people below as requested by the shouting of the crowd. Starfire glanced at her shadowy friend before flying into the sky and sending green bolts charging at Ringleader. Bruce watched, partly in shock as Starfire and Robin danced in the air out of his followed them from below and heard his ward still crying out in a demented voice for all to hear.

"I've build this show for you."

He flipped onto a higher rope to avoid a punch from the tamaranean.

"To make you Laugh,

To make you Smile,

To make you Love."

Ringleader was sent flying through the air when he took a bolt to the chest but he gripped a rope with his left arm and easily swung himself upon the shaky rope.

Down below Cyborg was firing at the stilts men who were easy targets above the crowd. The police had begun taking the clowns with the assistance of Beast Boy and Raven worked at the gates to bring the force field down. Ringleader was getting more excited by the minute but his crowd was getting nervous and frequently looked down below at the Boss.

It made Richard more aware of the amount of people surrounding his every move and how he knew nothing about them. It was all their fault but he didn't know the fault. He wanted to understand but like before he couldn't. However, this time things were different because his boss was here. His boss knew everything. He was sure of this but could not explain or back it up. He just knew Bruce knew so he spoke to him.

"Name the Crowd,

Make me Proud,

Find my Wings,

So I can Sing!

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!"

He swung a kick at Starfire catching her by surprise and sending her to the ground. Batman caught her before she hit down and together they look up at Ringleader sorrow etched on their faces. Their expressions disturbed him and his lips twitched downward. The crowd picked up on this and was ready to pounce on him. Their breath stung the back of his neck causing him to hastily call out.

"Who are they?

Name them.

Why don't you laugh?

Who are they?

Name them!

Why don't you name them?

Danielle, Release the Beasts!"

Starfire squeaked in fear as a roar shot out from below them. They ran to the edge of the roof and watched as an Asian lady shot the ropes holding a row of crates. The crates fell and broke releasing starving big cats. The king of the beasts charged at the people its powerful jaws crushing bone. The tiger followed its lead and the leopard and the cheetah and the panther.

As Bruce turned to face his son the noise around them faded away and all he could hear was Richard's mania laughing. The world surrounding him swirled about like a surreal nightmare.

Batman snapped.

He pushed Starfire aside and flung his batarangs with as much force as he could muster and sliced through the ropes Ringleader was standing on. With a yelp, he crashed onto the roof. Ringleader scampered to his feet but before he could move a bomb exploded at his feet sending him sliding across the floor.

His smile faltered and his laughter turned a little uneasy. His boss looked angry which made the crowd somber. He wasn't sure what to do anymore.

"You don't like that joke. I have another."

Ringleader reached into his belt and brought out a golden knife. He was about to fling them onto the people when he was sent flying across the side of the building by the tip of a boot. He recovered quickly and flipped onto the building behind him.

His face had lost his smile and was beginning to look panicked. He had worked hard on the show for his Boss but he wasn't smiling. The crowd stared at him now, at his failure.

"Why aren't you laughing? I did this for you!"

He turned to bolt across the roof but slammed straight into his own force field. He flipped around just in time to bloke a punch heading towards his face. He brawled a little, his face becoming more and more distorted with each punch Batman threw at him, before managing to flip onto the building to this right.

"Why."

As he spoke his voice quivered and the crowd began to smirk at him.

"Why are you trying to beat me?

Do you hate me?

Do you hate?"

Bruce caused Batman's pursuit to falter for a second but where he stalled Starfire jumped in and fired a starbolt towards Ringleader who dove out of the way. Richard's breathing was heavy. He didn't understand why Bruce was attacking him.

He wanted him to be proud of his show. Why didn't he laugh? He looked up at the crowd and clenched his chest. It hurt and his heart was pounding in his ears. The crowd was advancing upon him. They were closing in. Richard panicked and flung his bombs at them but they just laughed and moved closer.

"Call them off!

You know their names!

Call them off!"

He stumbled backwards but tripped over his own feet and shrieked as he fell. The crowd leaned menacingly over him.

"Please Bruce,call them off please."

He begged with his hands drawn up to his face.

"I… I please, I want my wings…. hurts."

Richard sobbed hysterically his tears giving him a blinding headache so he failed to see the crowd crying out in anger as something burned them away from him.

"Please, I'm sorry so sorry, please…"

He gasped as he felt something grab him roughly and shove him against a wall. He took a deep breath to try and get the air the crowd was depriving him of but choked as he breathed in. He almost tried again but them he smelt it.

A cave, he smelt a cave.

Richard brought his hands up forcefully because he was crushed so hard against the wall and grasped the black fabric that hung around him. The wall moved up and down slightly and he heard a faint thumping but he couldn't see the crowd anymore. The wall was blocking them out. He welcomed the blackness and pressed his face harder against the wall as he shook with sobs.

* * *

Starfire gazed at the chaos of her city. Then with as much willpower as she could muster, she imagined them, Robin and his k'norfka. But, they weren't crying in her mind; they were laughing. Robin was dressed in his original outfit and he was greeting his k'norfka, who had come to visit the tower, with a large smile.

She let the vision wash over her and felt power streaming through her veins. She kicked off the floor and flew up above the chaos to the middle of the tent and cried out,

"Your show has ended! Ringleader is dead! We have killed him and we will keep him dead forever, give up!"

His crew looked up in horror which gave every police officer and Titan the opening they needed to drag them to the ground. Danielle shrieked in horror which drew Starfire's attention to her.

"You! You are the witch who helped mess with my friend!"

Her eyes burned a fiery green and her hair blazed as she charged viciously at the girl.

* * *

Batman's arms trailed down to Richard's back and unclipped his utility belt so he couldn't attack him if he got the thought but he didn't believe he would. He shifted the teen's weight and stood up taking Richard into his arms as he rose.

He moved his feet one in front of the other till he reached the edge and crouching slightly, jumped onto the lid of the dumpster below. Once on the ground, he began walking through the sea of panicky people.

He passed a group of paramedics desperately trying to stop the bleeding of a blond haired male.

He passed a great tiger lying dead on the floor.

He passed a green teen and a metal teen that watched him desperately to see the boy in his arms move as he walked by.

A pile of tied up clowns and jugglers knocked out cold laid next to them. He stopped in front of a girl who looked at the bundle in his arms and sighed in relief. She stopped some people from moving and waved him forward so he continued and passed through the hole in the force field she had created. Richard didn't stop crying and he didn't stop walking until he was on the beach of Jump City Lake.

He closed his eyes and felt them fill with moisture. A hand came to rest on his shoulder and he turned to stare into deep green eyes.

* * *

The End ~ JK lol that would be a sucky ending wouldn't it? Nah that is actually my 1/3 way point as far as plot goes and might I say our lovely Starfire is quiet the trooper. I always admire her powers because they work by thinking a happy thought and damn that could get really hard sometimes like when raven destroyed the world or Terra betrayed them...


	12. Chapter 12

Wow so I didn't realize when I wrote this chapter but there is a ton of dialogue. I kinda like it but let me know if you don't like it and I'll edit further chapters that might be like that. Although I could just be trippy today and that's what the rest of my chapters look like. :p Anyway enjoy^^

* * *

By the time the pair had made it to the tower Richard was unconscious. After at least thirty minutes of hyperventilating the low oxygen intake mixed with his exhaustion and lack of sleep managed to knock him out. Starfire lead Batman to the medical bay. Once inside he instructed her to wait outside and make sure no one disturbed him.

Although disappointed, she agreed and left the room. The first thing he did was scout the room for cameras and microphones that could pick up what he was doing in the room. He didn't find any and, after he was satisfied, he locked the door. Once locked, Bruce removed his cowl and gloves and walked over to his son. He took a damp towel and gently whipped the smeared makeup off his face.

He then walked towards the gray cabinet, threw the cloth in the waste basket next to it, and removed a medical garment from the cabinet.

He took off Richard's shirt first and examined him starting from the top and moving downwards checking the boy for any serious injuries. Luckily most of his injuries were small and did not require immediate attention so he slipped the gown over his head.

Besides the injuries Batman had given him from their fight, Richard was showing signs of malnutrition and random sores. He looked exhausted even as he slept. He did notice old injuries were spread out over his body. They looked self-inflicted whether by accident or on purpose he could not tell.

* * *

Outside Starfire was pacing nervously around the door. She didn't like being shut out from her friend after being included in the bulk of his rescue. She pressed her ear up to the door but couldn't hear anything. She sighed and slide down the door and brought her knees to her chest. She got up again and floated curiously when she heard loud noises fluttering throughout the halls.

"Friends, is that you?"

"Star!"

The Titans yelled as they rounded the corner. They looked around quickly and then started towards the infirmary door.

"Wait, Robin is being cared for in there and you cannot enter."

"Why not?"

"His K'norfka does not wish to be disturbed."

"So he's just going to hoard him away in there?"

"Cyborg calm down. We can see him when he opens the door. Till then we just have to wait, no big deal."

As Raven said this, the pictures around them shook dangerously making the group laugh. Beast Boy slide down the wall to sit on the floor and the others followed his example.

"So how is he? You screaming that Ringleader died kind of freaked me out."

"Yeah!"

"But, he did die. Now that we have Robin we killed Ringleader so he cannot go crazy and wreck Robin."

"Okay, just how is Robin?"

"I am unsure. He was crying and had the trouble breathing because he was crushing his face too hard to his K'norfka and went to sleep. I lead him to the med bay and he had me wait outside. I haven't heard from them since."

"But he is okay? Nothing life threatening?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"Good. I'm still surprised how that turned out. I hate to say it but I'm glad he attacked the city otherwise I don't know if we would have found him."

"Not true, we had discovered a trail and were following it. We could not have failed dear Robin."

"Of course not. But I can't believe that worked out like it did. We put every single one of those lunatics behind bars or have them cornered thanks to that force field tent. I guess they didn't plan on having to escape."

"I don't think they thought that far ahead and they probably assumed their Ringleader was going to cancel the tent."

"Or that horrendous lady, what happened to her after I won the battle with her."

"Well, like the rest of the group she was taken to jail. They are going to test her later for insanity but she seemed pretty sane to me. She's just a trapped animal now."

"What if she talks about Robin? Do we know how much she was in on?"

"As far as we know she doesn't know much. Apparently she was his right hand girl, helped organize his events and stuff. She bought, well stole, a ton of things for the event and worked her strings to get the animals brought over. She didn't know Robin's identify though and said nothing that hints she knew he was Robin. Just a strange girl with a sick need for theatrical violence."

"Yeah, well, I hope the police can force her to tell them how to disable the force field. I was able to open up a walkway but only one person can get through at a time. I'll look at it more tonight."

"I can help assist you this time."

"Good, I could use your help."

"Do you think now that Batman is here when we walk through that door Robin will be normal?"

The group sat quietly thinking. Batman did seem to know what was wrong with him. Wouldn't it only make sense that he could fix him? After all, it was the drug that made Robin the way he was. Raven spoke first.

"No, no I don't think so."

"What do you mean sure he will, just like when we removed that dust from him that made him see Slade everywhere."

"I think it'll take time BB. Not only that but he's going to have to come to terms with what he did."

Just then the door interrupted them and the group scurried to their feet. Batman emerged carrying his young charge in his arms. Robin's face was covered by a cloth but they could see his chest rise and fall steadily.

"Is he okay?"

Cyborg asked. Batman brushed past him silently and began walking to the main room.

"Um, did you get the toxins out of him?"

They didn't get a reply and everyone but Starfire seemed upset by this. She had stopped floating behind them and was now walking sadly after them. When they reached the main room they thought he would stop but he just turned to the right and was about to go through another door when Starfire kicked her feet off the floor and floated down in front of him.

"How can I contact you?"

His facial expressions did not change but he turned and walked towards the computer. He entered the contact to the Batcave into their address book and then exited out.

"Thank you."

He nodded at her but the others had started to catch on.

"Wait a minute!" Beast Boy cried.

"You're not taking him away are you?"

"Friend he must recover at his own home."

"You can't just take him away. He's our friend too! We should be able to help him recover."

"Yeah, man let's let him wake up so he can decide what he wants to do."

Batman narrowed his eyes at them. "What he'll want to do is kill everyone in this city." The Team gasped at his harsh words.

"He will not!"

"No? Then what has he been doing?"

"He's sick."

"The Joker's sick too."

"What are you going to do throw him in jail!?"

"That's none of your concern."

"Damn right it's our concern! He's our leader, our friend, part of our family and you can't just take him away! You should either stay here with him or leave without him!"

At this statement Batman let out a harsh bark of laughter.

"Leave him with you? The very people who ignored his symptoms that he obviously displayed long before he committed murder! People don't turn crazy overnight. But, you kids just ignored them and because of that over 20 people are dead from events that would never have occurred if you were observant instead of sticking your heads in video games! And you expect me to leave my under aged child in your hands when your ignorance caused this. If you can't handle being a full time hero you should just disappear."

The Titans stared meekly and angrily at their toes which gave him enough him enough time to slip out of the room before they could say anything else. Now that he was gone, the group's head began to clear.

"Ah man I'm sorry guys. I completely screwed us over."

"Damn! If you hadn't opened your big mouth and he wasn't such an asshole maybe we would have actually got to help."

"Friends please, all hope is not lost look I'll show you."

A tense silence fell over the group as they watched her float over to the computer and pull up an unnamed contact in the system.

" Remember, he left us means to contact him so we may call about Robin. You just angered him. Please understand it must be terrible to see your child in such a state."

"His kid? Oh gosh I never thought about that."

"Is Batman his father?"

"Robin's never said."

"I have always felt he was his K'norfka like I call him but the role is one in the same I suppose."

"Did anyone else hear him call Robin a minor?"

"I'm a minor."

"It shows."

"Man does that mean I've been taking orders from a guy who is younger than me!"

"He's good at what he does."

* * *

The Batwing swooshed into the cave and alighted on the circular landing pad. He jumped out and grabbed Richard and began walking to the main section of the cave. He stopped when he saw Alfred.

"Is it ready?"

"It is indeed sir. I have prepared the first one."

He nodded and hurried off towards the holding cells on the far right side of the cave. He set him down in a chair and quickly changed him into grey sweat pants and a blue sweater that Alfred had laid out for him. Next, he laid him on the cot which was on the right side of the wall , strapped him down, and took a blood sample from his arm. He closed and locked the door behind him.

It didn't take long for the computer to come back with the blood results. Bruce studied them on the screen and noticed some old toxins had emerged from his blood that had been jacked through him so long ago. There were new toxins that he didn't quiet remember as well.

"Alfred."

"Yes sir?"

"Get in contact with Dr. Tompkins. We need her again."

"Of course."

He spoke sadly as he observed the results on the screen. Batman was about to turn away when his screen fuzzed and a signal was coming through. He answered the call and Starfire slowly appeared on the monitor.

"Hello? Can you hear me over there?"

"Yes. What?"

"You are okay? And Robin? I was worried he might have woken up and done something rash like attack while you were flying or end his life."

"Has he tried that before?" His voice rose slightly.

"No, but it is not uncommon for my people to act so after an episode. They have trouble recognizing they were sick and needed help themselves so please watch him closely."

"I plan to."

Her eyes lit up and she smiled at him.

"I am glad. I wish great success for you and his recovery."

She then bowed and terminated the signal. Bruce hovered around the main computer staring off at the heart of the cave. His mind drifted back to his days when his son had first started his career. He had been so hard on him those days but he had done it to keep his bird safe, something he seemed to be failing at the moment. Using the main computer Bruce brought up the old files of Robin's blood and the antidote he had used before. The new toxins were different but still similar.

"Alfred."

"Yes, Master Wayne."

"I want Richard kept under while we remove the drugs from his system. There's no point of him being awake like that."

"If you say so sir."

He turned back to the screen once more and waited impatiently while the computer made a new antidote. He needed to flush the drug through Richard as quick as possible so that they could begin his therapy and decide how much of the murders had been the drug and how much had been Richard.

He also had to decide what to do with Richard. He couldn't charge him in court like he should be because it would reveal his identity but his actions couldn't go unchecked. He brought his hand up to message his temple and left it there as he sat there with the silence of the cave.

* * *

The Titans sat around the living room table on the floor with Starfire at the head.

"So we have all gathered today because out dear friend Robin is off getting well and we are not there to help."

"Right you are Star, so my brilliant mind has come up with the idea of the ultimate get well soon basket!"

"Beast Boy sit down!" He laughed nervously, got off the couch and slide next to Starfire.

"So, how are we going to get this thing to him? Somehow I don't think showing up and just handing it to the Bat is possible."

"Umm actually I was thinking that or maybe this cave of his has a mailing address."

"You're kidding right?" "I do not understand what kids have to do with this."

"No, No, he doesn't think Batman will let us give this to him."

"Why would he not?"

"Um remember when he left and was screaming at our faces."

"Oh you are afraid he will no longer contact us. Not to worry friends. I communicated with him about twenty minutes ago and he said Robin was home and well."

"Wait, he is!? Can we talk to him?"

She shook her head and the group all sighed in defeat.

"He is not awake yet."

"So you really think he will let us send the get well soon basket?"

"Of course."

The Titans all looked at each other, grinned, rushed out of the tower, and piled into the T-car. On the way over they chatted amiably about what to put in the basket. The sun hung high in the sky which casted a luminescent glow on the city. Clouds floated leisurely through the air and playful birds dived in and out of them. The traffic was flowing smoothly once again for the barrier had been removed.

At the edge of the city the tigers, lions, panthers, and other animals stretched inside the barred walls of their new homes. Their large paws flattened the blades of grass as they walked and collected the morning dew on their fur.

The female lion flicked her tail in agitation as she sat behind the trench and bars keeping her in. She stood up, hunched herself down and peered across the trench to judge the distance to see if she could make the jump. But her motivation died quickly and she exhausted herself. She got up with her shoulders slumped as if heavy weights were on her and dragged herself back into the shadow of her artificial den made of wood and straw.

The T-car crushed the patches of dry grass under its wheels as it pulled up the store. Then just as the grass had begun to creep up towards the sun it was trampled underfoot as the Titans poured out of the car.

Starfire's hair blew messily in the wind and a single strain floated down onto the ground.

The automatic doors closed shut behind the group. Beast Boy quickly led the way to the counter on the right side of the store with balloon designs littering the walls behind it. They ordered five large balloons and then split up throughout the store to find the perfect gift to put in the basket.

Cyborg grabbed the nearest cart and began strolling down the aisles. He found the baskets and selected the biggest one he could find. Moving forward he collected green basket grass and a bag of Hershey's candies.

He then came to the trinket center and grinned in anticipation. Small plastic trinkets littered the shelves of various greens, oranges, yellows, reds, and blues. He reached out and grabbed a small blue kazoo and dropped it into the basket. Next, came the pink bouncy ball, the paddle ball, sticky man, mini whoopee cushion, plastic flute whistle.

He didn't know how long Robin would be at the med bay but he would have some slight entertainment. Cyborg looked up and a large pile of stuff made its way into the cart.

"Thought he could use some comics and stuff to look over while he is recovering you know?" Beast Boy explained.

"Man, you found some comics in this place?"

"I know right? This place has everything!"

Plop, another pile landed in the cart.

"I figured he could use something intelligent to read and I got him a journal with pens and stuff. I t would do him good to write about what happened." Raven stated.

"That is a great idea friend!"

Bang, a large clump of things topped off the cart and Cyborg felt the Titan expenses start to shake with fear.

"Goodbye, Benjamin."

"What?"

"Huh, nothing, so what's all that?"

"Ah! I found this fun bright scarf of feathers, a mug that says you are loved, fun paper to write a letter, a necklace with the letter R on it and lots of other delightful gifts!"

"Well, everyone good? Ready to check out?"

"Yip." The chorus replied.

Cyborg pushed hard on the cart and rolled it towards the checkout counter. By the time he was through paying an earthworm had eaten through his wallet leaving him with little else for the week. Despite this the group loaded their things into the car and stormed into the nearest café.

Three sodas, one tea and four cookies later, everyone quieted down. Beast Boy planted the stack of comics on the table and began writing messages on the white back boards in each plastic case. Raven wrote in the first pages of the journal. While Cyborg borrowed paper from Starfire which both where using to write on. Each of them wrote carefully, absorbed in the events over the last few days but they wanted to make it clear in their letters that they loved him.

They did not condemn him but forgave him. They wanted him to come back when he could and not just as Robin but as their friend and leader. It was well into the afternoon when the last of them dropped their pen.

Feeling very tired they decided to head home and then figure out how to get the present of Robin. They made a large dinner that night. No one had realized it but their appetites had dropped during the time Ringleader ruled. Their world seemed to be falling back into place with his departure and with their gift basket sent. They were ready to finally sleep but instead their night was filled with pacing the hallways, gazing at the ceiling, and endless silence.

* * *

Wee! Hoped you liked the chapter.^^ There will be a lot of cuddling after this chap and what not. I'm trying to keep the titans in each chap because this is a teen titans story but I'll be focusing a lot on Robin and his recovery now.


	13. Chapter 13

Note to random guest: I appreciate your support but you need to understand I have a life outside of this fanfic. If I don't update in a while chances are I'm really busy which in this case consists of getting promoted and some hard college classes. I will never put my story up for adoption. I am still writing this fiction and plan to until it is finished. If you're going to bug me to update fine it makes me feel bad and I will probably update faster but being rude about it makes me want to take a longer.

~Srry other people that have to see me rant but as this is a guest I can't send then a pm. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.

* * *

Dr. Tompkins arrived an hour after she had been called and was lead down into the depths of the cave. Her hair was pulled up and a large scowl adorned her face as she fretted the Bat.

"Again, Bruce." She hissed. "Don't bother explaining. I won't hear your excuses. Where is the child?"

"It resurfaced. The Joker never touched him."

They quieted and he lead her though through the halls. She hurried inside and threw her bag on the table next to the bed. Procedures were then preformed. His pulse was checked, breathing rated, eyes observed, injuries rated and parent quizzed. She stared at him until he handed over his notes.

They worked quietly on the antidote together. They pulled over old information and observed new information. They spoke of little else but the drug. When the day grew longer she excused herself to rest in a room above.

Bruce did not.

He stayed working amidst the flickering screens and screeching bats. He dover deeper and deeper into his research and by day fall he had something. When the Doctor wondered back down Bruce was running his final analysis. Various chemicals laid about and failed concoctions stacked neatly against the wall. She moved to stand behind him to critique his work.

"It looks adequate."

He jerked up. She reached over him and took the new drug.

"You mentioned while we were working he was infected with a different drug by some guy called Deathstroke or Slade. When it mixed with the old toxins in his system it created more violent reaction. He wouldn't have done much damage, at least to other people, if it wasn't there. It made him be able to think for himself in that state. If you can call that thinking."

"He made the decision to kill."

"No, I don't think it's that simple. He didn't make any discussion. His insanity made them for him."

"The thought had to come from somewhere."

* * *

The drug was successful. It took days to clear the harmful ones out of his system until all that remained were the dormant shadows of the past. It was time to wake him up. Batman had Dr. Tompkins take Robin off the sedative but she refused to completely depart and waited outside the room while he sat inside.

Richard breathed peacefully, the rise and fall of his chest working in harmony with his relaxed muscles. Batman got up from his seat when he noticed Robin had begun to stir and slowly sat him in a sitting position with his arms firmly fashioned beside him.

Richard's eyes fluttered open into a wide stare. His world swam in a haze and it was hard for him to make out what was stable and what wasn't.

He turned his head from and suddenly his body went stiff. The crowd stood on either side of the room watching him with a crooked grin. He tried to move his hands to his face but could not.

He noticed the restraints around his wrists and looked fearfully back to the group who chuckled, coughed, then laughed. All at once he began pulling frantically at his bindings whimpering like a puppy. Batman stared at him as he thrashed against the restraints. He stood there, watching him miles away from the surface of consciousness.

"Robin."

The world around him had lost its meaning in the drowning of their laughter.

"Richard!"

Suddenly it stopped.

The crowd's smiles evaporated from their faces and all drew back to gaze upon the Dark Knight. The boy went completely stiff and bent his neck to look upon the center of their gaze.

"You, you made it stop." He croaked.

Batman stared back.

"How did you do that?"

He unhitched himself and faced forward with hitched brows.

"How…"

His head dropped and he squeezed his eyes shut releasing a slow drip of salty water.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry." He gasped deeply. "So sorry, sorry, sorry."

Batman watched, stiffly mimicking the stricken pose of Richard before him

"The crowd they, they the crowd…"

He moaned despairingly over his own tears before quieting to let the tears fall undisturbed from his face. Batman seemed to remember himself in Richard's silence and moved forward till he was a couple paces away. His cowl rested on his shoulders.

"Richard? Can you hear me?"

He felt silly asking the question but none the less he moved his head up and down.

"Do you know why you're restrained?" Restrained, restrained.

His head moved hesitantly up and down.

"And you remember what you did?"

Dick did not respond. For a minute it looked like he might but his head rolled lifelessly to his shoulder. His mouth moved but nothing came out.

"I said do you realize what you have done?"

He raised his voice this time as he moved closer to Richard. But the child remained still, his mind refusing to give him the ability to respond in an attempt to protect his already fragile state. The bat grew and he jerked Richard forward and growled at him.

"Do you or do you not remember what you did?!"

He breathed heavily in his face and watched as Richard's face contorted in fear and despair.

"I don't know! I just don't know! How can I tell what's real anymore?"

He cried out causing Bruce to take a step back.

"Are you even real? What's real? Real? Just go away."

Bruce staggered backwards. He had expected him to be shaky. He had expected him to be off but the sheer raw edge that faced him now was incomprehensible.

Richard began thrashing against his restraints. The crowd was laughing and laughing. One laugh stood out amidst the crowd causing him to shot up with utter terror and scream. It guffawed relentlessly throughout the room, eyes sparkling, lips upturned, hands swinging merrily about.

"Don't just stand there hold him!"

Bruce lunged from his frozen spot on the wall and fumbled for Richard's shoulders. Once he got a firm grip he struggled to hold his arm while the sharp needle descended upon Richard's vein luring him into a limp slumber. Silence etched itself upon the walls and into the crevices of the cave.

"You stupid fool! What did you think was going to happen?"

"The toxins must still be working."

"No, there are no toxins affecting his mind. What did you expect him to wake up and ask what happened. Ask what he is doing with you again? He has a mental condition Bruce. He killed people because of what it did to his system. Could you live with yourself after that? If you want to fix the damage you've caused to this child you cannot stress his mind. There's not much left for you to break as it is."

"He did not act like that last time."

"He was cationic the first time. The Joker never could figure out how to make the drug work but it looks like Slade found the missing part. Not only that but how would you know what happened the first time? The only thing you did was run and hide. You brought him into this life and then sent him out. You know I have never agreed with what you do but a child is maddening."

"This is not the discussion. I brought you here to fix him."

"Then fix him, I'm just here for the medical crap. It's your job to fix the other stuff."

He heard her footsteps receding down the hall and soon his followed. Once outside he was met by Alfred.

"If I might suggest Master Wayne, the boy would do better in a more comfortable room."

"No, he's dangerous he needs to be restrained."

"He is not your prisoner sir. He is you ward. Not even a rat could recover in what you're keeping him in."

Bruce nodded wordlessly and then escaped into the Bat-Car. The butler nodded coarsely and took sharp deliberate steps towards the room in dispute. He wasted no time in refreshing the cell into a room. Items from the Richard's room were brought down, pillows, pictures, chairs, rugs, everything to make it livable.

Alfred made a particular point to hang the family picture of Richard's parents directly across the bed so he would see it when he woke. He placed the gift basket from the Titans on the table and straightened at the sudden intrusion of a voice.

"Would you care if I died?"

"I would care very much, Master Richard."

His eyes traveled to the blue ones that were fixed on the floor.

"But Bruce wouldn't. I broke my oath."

"You do not know Master Wayne as well as you think then. He would be greatly saddened by your passing."

"No, I don't think so. I became like the Joker. No one could morn that."

Alfred rested his hand on the top of Richard's head and soothed back his hair.

"Harley would."

"She's crazy."

"Yet, her grief remains. What happened was out of your control."

"But, they're laughing Alfred. They're always laughing."

He could tell he was slipping again.

"The Titans would also miss you. They left this for you."

Tears trekked down his face as he gazed at the basket. His team had not deserted him. Their letters were next to the gifts but his arms were restrained so he could not pick them up.

"Would you read me what they wrote?"

He stood to full height and patted his head.

"I'll let you read them when you recover. It'll give you something to look forward to. We will move you to your room soon."

Richard smiled a little. Alfred wryly left the room as Bruce tentatively entered. The man was casual, blue jeans and a white cotton button up shirt with ivory cuff links.

"You're feeling better. That's good."

He spoke an uncertain fact nothing more. He need not respond.

"The room looks a lot better. Did you see your picture?"

He followed Bruce's gesture to his family picture yet showed no emotion towards it. His crowd was there watching in grim satisfaction as the man fluttered nervously about the room. He could hear them getting louder as they pressed in around him. Their voices were getting stronger until he became a part of the group.

"Useless friends you know. But at least they are true."

Richard almost felt as if he was observing the scene form a distance. The crowd was telling him what to say and do and for reasons he wasn't sure, he obeyed. Bruce's fingers brushed the basket but retracted them as if burned when he heard Richard guffaw.

"What's so funny?"

His answer was delayed over the laughter.

"You, you are what's so funny. My crowd must be desperate to laugh at that."

"What are you talking about?"

Bruce asked nervously. He thought about getting Dr. Tompkins to sedate him again.

"You, they are laughing at you. They need a show. They haven't had one in a while. I need to create one, need to create one…"

"You're not hurting anyone and don't even think about escaping."

He growled in his Batman voice. It was easier to treat Richard as a threat so he began to play the part.

"But the crowd need it! The public loves my shows too. They get so much publicity. Doesn't the boss want my shows to be famous?"

"Hitler was famous. Is that who you want to become?"

"But I make people famous too. Everyone will remember my victims as the ones who went down with a bang! Besides I'm just showing everyone that in the end death is what we have in common. And my crowd needs it. They get bored, so terribly bored. I can't stand to see them that bored when they're bored…"

Bruce had heard enough of Richard's ramble.

"So you murder innocent lives!"

Bruce yelled as he stood towering over Richard. He reacted almost immediately to Bruce's change of posture.

"They took my wings and you won't tell me where they are! They are laughing at me, laughing at me!"

He squirmed in his restrains as a mouse would in the paws of a cat.

"The crowd isn't real Richard. It's just in your head."

Richard stared incredulously at Dr. Tompkins who stood in the doorway. The noise had brought her. She had moved into the room and put a silencing palm on Bruce's shoulders. Bruce stared at her at a loss of how to react. His act had gone too far and now the show was canceled.

"Can't you see them?"

"I heard you say you didn't know what's real. Well I'm telling you right now the crowd isn't real."

"No, no, no, my wings, they have my wings!"

She whispered in Bruce's ear. "Tell him you have them."

"What!?"

"Do it."

"I have your wings."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Why? Won't you give them back? You won't give them back."

"I've tried to but you won't take them."

"No! You haven't tried to give them to me! That's a lie! I will take them. Please give them to me."

"Richard listen to Bruce to get them not the crowd. You have to make the crowd go away."

"They won't leave."

"They aren't real."

"They exist!"

Tompkins grabbed Bruce's arm and lead him directly in front of Richard. She shoved him into a crouching position and stood facing them.

"Richard I need you to tell me five things you are feeling right now."

"What the hell is that supposed to do?"

"Shut-up, Bruce!"

"Fear, Pain…"

"No, Richard. What are you physically feeling with your hands, use your hands."

"He can't. He's restrained."

"Then let him!" Bruce fumbled with the restraints until Richard's hands were free to grasp the room around him.

"Sheets"

His hands traveled toward himself.

"Clothes, uh it's a shirt."

He moved his hand in front of him and met a surface. He kept his eyes squeezed shut as he gently probed the surface in front of him. Bruce froze up in slight panic when Richard touched him. It seemed like whatever the Doctor was doing was bringing him back to his senses. It made his chest ache and his eyebrows crease. This was his child.

"A face, I feel a face. A hand there's a hand on mine now."

"One more Richard."

"It's warm."

"Good now I need you to tell me five solid things you can see."

His eyes opened and looked around the room, past the occupant, to stare directly at the crowd. He began to shake slightly.

"No!"

Bruce grasped Richard's hand more firmly and used his other hand to move Richard's head towards his. He couldn't lose him to this again. If looking at this crowd made him crazy he wouldn't let him look at them.

"No, Dick, not them, look at me, not them, not them."

"I see Bruce, his hair, eyes, nose, mouth."

"That's good. That's very good."

"I see you."

He tugged on his hand and Bruce released it. He brought his hand up and cupped Bruce's face as if the he would disappear and his hand would be left off balance.

"You didn't leave."

He began to shake with tears and Bruce wrapped him in his arms and brought him close.

"They aren't real Dick."

"But they are, they're real to me."

He stared hard at the crowd and used Bruce's last words as a mantra in his head but he still didn't believe it and they remained. Bruce's hand carded through his hear and words of comfort brushed his ear. He focused on this and his body began to relax. Bruce felt this and picked Richard up slightly to shift them on the bed with his back leaning against the wall and Richard safely in his arm.

"I'm going to make you better Dick. I swear it."

"How can you fix this?"

"No, I'll heal you you'll see. Hush."

"I think you should stay here tonight."

Tompkins whispered into the scene.

"What?"

He croaked fixing his distressed eyes on her.

"I'm not going to leave him.

Shhh I'm not going anywhere my little Robin.

Hush, little bird, hush."

* * *

Phewww…. What a mouthful. I sort of feel like this chapter jumped all over the place but I like it. Some parts were a little cheezy(the ending cough cough) but I think I made the next chapter more realistic. If you're wondering the little list five things you feel and then see is a legit way to get through an attack. It doesn't work for everyone or all the time but little things help. Robin is going to talk to the Titans in the next chap :)


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